This document provides an overview of digital marketing topics including pay-per-click (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO), social media optimization, and other areas. It defines key terms, explains concepts like how PPC auctions work and the importance of quality score, and discusses best practices for on-page and off-page SEO as well as social media engagement. Other topics covered include local search optimization, mobile search marketing, YouTube ads, and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

1. Digital Marketing 101:
Demystifying the Dark Arts
ANNABEL HODGES – Head of Content & SEO
Columbus

2. Who am I? Blog here:
Work here:
Head of Content and SEO
: @searchpanda
• From UK via France & Malaysia
• Started work in multilingual search
marketing in 2005/06
• Worked across design/dev agencies,
content/editorial agencies before
moving to media agency
• Passionate about integrated digital
marketing
Loves:

3. Agenda
1. What is Digital Marketing?
2. What is Pay-Per-Click?
3. What is Search Engine Optimisation?
4. What is Social Media Optimisation?
5. What Else is There?!
6. Q&A

4. WHAT IS
DIGITAL MARKETING?

5. Image courtesy of ReelSEO

6. Display Advertising
Below the fold
728x90
Leaderboard Ad
Contextual
300x250
Ad

8. Demystifying Digital Marketing
Industry Related Gobbledegook:
– PPC = Pay Per Click
– SEM = Search Engine Marketing
– SEO = Search Engine Optimisation
– CRO = Conversion Rate Optimisation
– UX = Usability Experience
– Organic or Natural Results = Unpaid Web Listing Appearance
– Paid Listings = Paid Web Listing Appearance
– SERPs = Search Engine Results Pages
– Unique User: the number of unique IP addresses an online campaign
has reached

9. 62% of users are unaware of the distinction between
paid and organic results
36% of users think that companies returned in the top
positions are the market leaders in their field
Some Stats…

10. Anatomy of a SERP (Search Engine
Results Page)

11. How Does Google Work?

12. WHAT IS
PAY-PER-CLICK?

13. Demystifying Paid Search Lingo
Paid Search Vernacular:
– Impression – the number of times an ad is served
– CTR = Click Through Rate - % of users who have clicked on an
online ad after viewing it
– CPC = Cost Per Click - standard search metric but also used for
display advertising
– CPA = Cost Per Acquisition - calculated by dividing the cost by
the number of sales
– CPQ = Cost Per Quote
– CPM : cost per thousand (impressions), the most common
metric for buying online media placements
– Avg Position – Where the listing appears on the page, 1st, 2nd
etc

14. 1. So I type in a keyword…..
2. A real-time auction occurs which looks at:
– How many advertisers are bidding on that Keyword
– How much you are willing to pay (CPC)
– How much the others are willing to pay (CPC)
– What are the quality scores of the ads in the auction
3. From there, your ad will Appear which tallies up an impression
4. If the user is interested, they click – you get a website visit and pay $X for that click!
How Paid Search works – The basics

15. Ad Text maximises relevancy to the
user’s search query

16. BIDDING WARS!

17. Step 1: Your Keywords
BROAD
Appear on all queries
where keyword appear
PHRASE
Mix of broad and exact
match
EXACT
Appear only on the
exact terms bought

18. Introducing Your Hero!
NEGATIVE
Avoid appearing on
specific typed keywords

19. Keyword List Considerations

20. Get Down with the Long-Tail
Generic keywords
High volumes, less targeted, more
expensive, i.e. “cruise” or “cruise
lines”
HighTrafficVolume–LowConversions
Low Traffic Volume – High Conversions
Location & niche keywords
Low volume, high quality, less expensive i.e “cruise
in the pacific island”, “cheap cruise from australia
to fiji”
Consumer
Decision Making
Journey McKinsey
2009

21. Step 2: Quality Score
“Aim for Quality &
Relevance - 99% of the
time Quality Score will
follow”

22. Quality Score Building Blocks

23. Getting the Right Landing Page
Ask Yourself!
• Consumer can navigate the site with ease?
• Relevant information to help the consumer
make a decision?
• Effective Landing pages can increase
conversion by 40%!
• Engages immediate interest - reduce back
button usage?
• Reflects both keyword and creatives so that
the experience is a seamless and positive
one?
A common misconception in SEM is to start
with keywords - Always start with landing
pages NOT keywords. From here we derive
the core themes & products for the site

24. Extra! Extra!

25. Tools of the Trade

26. SEO & PPC Inform Each Other
SEO &
PPC
Keyword
Targeting
Traffic
Analysis
Improve
Rankings and
Brand
Presence
Improve
Quality score
Lower Cost
of PPC

27. SEO & SEM – Working Together
Top listing in both Paid and Organic will
receive more clicks
When companies appear in both paid
search listings and organic listings, the
average click-through increase is 51%.
Companies that depend only on
appearing in algorithmic search results
or paid search results may lose traffic to
competitors
The majority of clicks go to competitive
sites when brands ONLY appear in
either SEO or PPC results.
Source: IT Marketing Metrics Guide, MarketingSherpa (May 2004), Forrester Reports 2006

28. Pros ‘n Cons
• Pay Per Click (PPC )
+ Instantaneous traffic growth
+ Immediate ROI
+ Direct competitive response
+ Controlled Messaging
+ Controlled appearance
+ Transparency
+ Geographical targeted messaging
– Limited message space
– Traffic depends on budget
– Competition is increasing
• Organic Search (SEO )
+ “Free” traffic model
+ Larger amount of information
provided
+ Long-term ROI with right investment
– Long-term ROI: Listings & changes
can take a long time
– Limited Geographic targeting
– Continued algorithmic changes
– Ranking is not transparent

29. WHAT IS
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION?

30. Demystifying SEO Scribbles
SEO Vernacular:
– Bot/Crawler/Spider: The search engines’ method of crawling a
site
– Backlink: A link from an external site that points to yours
– Link Juice: The amount of ‘authority’ that passes from one page
to another via a give link
– PageRank: A system devised by Google co-founder Larry Page
to determine the authority of a given site
– Anchor Text: The text contained within a link
– Alt Text: Text that is used within the HTML code to describe the
content of an image
– Meta Title/Title Tag: The title of the a given page as specficied
in the HTML, usually shown in the top of your browser bar
– Meta Description: The section of HTML that you can use to
specify a short description of the page, often used as the
‘snippet’ within your SERP listing.
– H1, H2, H3: Header styles applied to titles/sections of text
within the coding of a site to give them more or less signficance.

31. SEO can Play Multiple Roles for Your
Business
Traffic Generation
Brand Reputation
Rebranding & Brand
Enhancement
Product
Development
Consumer
Engagement

32. What is SEO consultancy?
On-site technical strategy
On-site content strategy
Off-site link building and baiting strategy (inc. social media)
Analytics implementation & consultancy
High level planning to in-depth unique issues
Responses to algorithmic & industry updates

33. Actionable SEO is Based Upon Three
Pillars
SEO
Technical Development On-Page Optimisation
Link Development &
Social Signals
(Off-Page Optimisation)

34. The Principles of Good On-Site SEO
Combine Technical with Keyword
Data
CRAWLABLE LINK
STRUCTURE &
ACCESSIBLE ON-
PAGE CONTENT
TARGETING RIGHT
KEYWORDS
RELEVANT &
ENGAGING
CONTENT: SEARCH
ENGINES AND
USERS

35. Technical: Where Google Fails
WTF is this?
Beautiful
Site!

36. Keywords: What Makes Your Page/Site
Relevant?

37. Off-Site: What Makes Your Site Important?
Page A Page B
Google uses a link-citation led algorithm to help
determine the importance of pages

38. Off-Site Link Development Remains
Crucial to SEO
Up to 42% of
algorithm may be
link related
But algorithmic
updates increasingly
focus on high-quality
and natural backlinks

39. Google is also increasingly interested in
Social Signals

40. But it’s also clamping down on
spammers

42. Your Focus should be on Natural and
Varied Link Development Strategies

43. Black Hat or White Hat?

44. Tools of the Trade

45. WHAT IS
SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMISATION?

46. It’s all about ENGAGEMENT

47. Understanding Engagement

48. Social Media is not just Facebook/Twitter

49. Community Management as SEO
Linkbait

50. Being Social On and Off Site

51. Tools of the Trade
inboxq.com
followerwonk.com

52. WHAT ELSE IS THERE?

53. Local Search Optimisation

54. What to Focus On?
Submit &
Verify
Listings
Submit
Locations to 3rd
Party Sites
Optimise
website for
local venues
Strategy and
Consultation to
encourage
Reviews

55. Mobile & Tablet Search Marketing
Overlaps with
Local
optimisation
Additional
Keyword
Research
Mobile site
optimisation &
integration
Diff rules due to
screen size

56. YouTube Video Ads & Search
Optimisation
YouTube has its
own Algorithms
This means a
unique focus
on optimisation
Great way to
focus paid ads
on target
audience

57. CRO – Conversion Rate Optimisation
SEO can increase rankings, visibility and traffic but CRO can
– Improve on page engagement
– Reduce bounce rate
– Improve conversions
– Increase revenue
– Improve user experience
SEO
generates traffic
CRO improves conversion once people are on the website
to enhance user experience and engagement

58. : @searchpanda