Tag Archives: Online Marketing

It’s All Search

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Tim Kilroy

Search is a big channel. There are die-hard people in the SEO world who never think about paid search as part of search…it’s advertising they say. There are PPC jockeys who have disdain for anything that doesn’t have an easy metric and a quick way to A-B test. Anything else is squishy, they say.

Well, any debate that pits natural search vs. paid search is missing the synergistic whole.

It’s all SEARCH.

Search is about the traffic that comes from results to specific queries. And while there is a difference between the way paid and natural search works, as a marketer, it may help you to think of them as a single channel, because they work together so well.

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New Google Policy for Online Pharmacies Causes Some Google Campaigns to Go Dark

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Suzy Sandberg

Google has implemented a new policy affecting Internet pharmacies, HMO pharmacies, chain drugstores, and mass retailer pharmacies.  Such companies must now be certified by The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) through its Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) program in order for Google paid search keyword campaigns to be approved.  This policy extends to keywords associated with any merchandise on a website that sells pharmaceuticals – not just pharmaceutical products.

For those still awaiting VIPPS certification, Google shut down all keywords across all campaigns beginning last weekend.  Many companies were affected by the policy and few were prepared.  The implications of what Google would do and when they would do it were not clear enough.  A week later, many of these companies remain dark on Google paid search.  A great deal of revenue has been and continues to be lost while these pharmaceutical companies scramble to rectify the situation.

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PM Digital’s Holiday 2009 Rewind Study Released

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Glenn Lalich

This year’s report on paid search performance underscores dramatic improvements for retailers in Holiday 2009 compared to 2008.

PM Digital’s 4Q & Holiday 2009 Rewind report has been released with a look at paid search performance for retailers during the 2009 holiday season.  And as the study quickly points out, what a difference a year makes.  With 12 months’ distance from the bleakness of late 2008—a season in which e-commerce holiday sales actually dropped—online shoppers in 2009 seemed ready to buy with a renewed commitment to enjoy the holidays.

While research firm comScore cited 5% growth for online retailers, PM Digital’s clients saw paid search demand grow 19% on average.  Clicks, conversion and average order value were all up.

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Social Media: The Boisterous, New Triple Play

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Chris Paradysz

Until now, cable companies held a lock on “triple play” as a marketing phrase to indicate a consumer’s package of digital services, including phone, traditional cable and Internet access. Alas, social media has emerged as a (welcome) new threat to multi-channel marketing’s status quo and should be allowed to grab the “triple play” title (after all, cable has added a 4th play anyway — high-definition — with speculation of a 5th play in 3-D still to come).

Take the Lupus Research Institute’s Shady Ladies gala last Saturday night in Wellington, Florida.  The goal was to stir awareness for a deadly disease that mostly affects young women.  The evening event included dinner and good fun but, also, had silent and live auctions for celebrity sunglasses (Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scalfia, the Kardashians, Tom Bergeron of Dancing with the Stars fame, Beyonce etc.), as well as a few fashion pieces.

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Sears Marketplace and the Importance of Brand Control

Posted on January 13, 2010 by Suzy Sandberg
The launch of Marketplace at Sears.com underscores the limits of blind CSE syndication and the need for transparency, disclosure and control in strategic marketing partnerships.

Sears Marketplace launched last week with an impressive roster of retail clients for its new shopping portal.  On the surface, Sears appeared to have been quite successful at lining up an array of A-List partners.  Since PM Digital typically arranges and manages the feeds for these types of product listings, we were curious why many of our clients were there without our direct involvement.

It soon became clear that a few of our comparison shopping engine partners (CSEs) and their blind syndication networks were at play.  Our tracking revealed that Sears Marketplace was getting their content from Shopping.com.   Further research told us that Shopping.com was syndicating to Shop.com, which in turn was feeding to Sears Marketplace.

Unfortunately our own clients had never given permission to provide content to Sears Marketplace, and based on what many have told us over the past few days, they definitely would not have agreed to such a thing.  It is no surprise that marketers — especially those with upscale brands — would have preferred to decide for themselves whether partnering with Sears was brand appropriate.

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10 for 2010: What Matters Most for Natural Search Success in the New Year

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Tim Kilroy

As the New Year turns, it’s normal to look ahead. So here is my list of what’s coming up in the world of natural search for 2010.  In lieu of predictions, however, I’d like to offer up something a bit more actionable: a rundown of key areas that will require online marketers’ focus and attention to maximize natural search success in the coming year.

1.  Mobile Matters – I have actually been beating the mobile drum since I worked on mobile search in 1997, but this year, mobile really matters. (Google and Apple have spent almost $1 billion in the last quarter to buy mobile ad networks…that should tell you something!) The growth of mobile is torrid and with the rise of the smartphone and ubiquitous 3G, mobile search is working. In 2010, you will see an appreciable amount of traffic from mobile browsers. Are you thinking of how you can present yourself to the mobile user? If you aren’t now, you should be.

2. Images Matter – Visual search is hot. There have been dozens and dozens of early stage visual search engines that have been no better than demo-ware. But Google Image search has exploded, and we see that our clients are driving traffic through images searches. (If you are looking for a red dress, doesn’t it make sense to look for the red dress in pictures?) And with the advent of Google Goggles, image search will continue to explode. Are you optimizing your images to be relevant and available for image search?

3. Not Being a Dog Matters – Do you remember this incredible cartoon which touted the invisibility of who you are online? Well, the world has changed dramatically since then, and your reputation as a marketer is now well known on the internet. In 2009, I suggested that reputation was about to become an important part of the online world, and 2010 that will become even more valuable. How you behave as a marketer, how you share information with customers, and how you engage with customers will have an impact on your search visibility in 2010.

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A Final Holiday Prediction for Online Retail

Posted on December 11, 2009 by Chris Paradysz

Significant marketing opportunities remain during the final shopping days of 2009.

Using this year’s performance data, including clicks, conversions and sales, combined with the current demand run rate versus forecasts, I anticipate a rapidly accelerating online growth curve beginning on December 16th and 17th and growing through that weekend. And, the last-minute burst on the 21st to beat the shipping cutoff is going to be unprecedented. There’s a big opportunity to get ahead of this with promotions, search copy and even bid management so retailers can capture the demand and take a little pressure off the order influx.

There have been significant buying pattern shifts all Holiday season, particularly during the Black Friday to Cyber Monday run-up. Consumers who have been waiting it out for better promotions will be rewarded as they have been now for the past two seasons. We believe we’re going to see progressive growth starting this weekend, and that this year’s high-water mark could surpass CyberMonday.

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Ready For a Cuppa?

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Tim Kilroy

Google Caffeine’s obsession with speed will bring tremendous opportunities for marketers in 2010 – but you’d better get moving now.

GoogleAnyone who knows me knows that I am mildly obsessed with coffee. I savor it, gulp it, glory in it. But really, it is all about the caffeine. Caffeine makes me feel alive. Caffeine makes me engaged. Caffeine makes my heart purr along at 600 beats per minute. Caffeine is essential. Google shares my love for the caffeinated lifestyle. They are obsessed with speed. They want their servers chugging along like they’ve spent the afternoon with 400 of their favorite baristas. Google is ready to rock Caffeine, their new internal search architecture.  Google Caffeine is ready to roll out after the holidays.

What Does Google Caffeine Mean to Marketers?

Fundamentally, it doesn’t change your current search positions a lot. The essential algorithm that Google uses to determine which sites are relevant for particular terms isn’t really changing that much in the near term (but look out…big changes are coming…more on that before Christmas). But there are nuances that are becoming evident:

1. Indexing - Caffeine is all about indexing speed for Google. How many more pages can Google add to its index and how quickly?  Caffeine represents a significant change in Google’s housekeeping. This is good for Google. They are speeding up the indexing because the web is exploding in its growth. (See my Here Comes The Flood for more info on the whats, whys, and wheres of the explosions).  Google needs to get faster so that it can keep up with the deluge of new information and links. The takeaway for marketers is that you can expect to see your newer pages show up in the index (but not necessarily well ranked) sooner. Speed of indexation is good, but a bigger index means that you have even MORE work to do to keep yourself visible. You will likely have to do less work to become seen by Google, but more work to be visible to searchers.

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Paid Search and ROI: A Sure Thing for Marketers this Holiday Season

Posted on November 30, 2009 by Suzy Sandberg

Invest in search now to put you a step ahead in 2010.

Depending on your definition of ‘investment’ and ‘return’, search this Holiday is being asked to be as solid as investing in dollars in 2005.  And, for most, it will deliver. But search’s ability as an investment vehicle today is struggling, better yet, starving for capital.

Many players have narrowed paid search’s scope and potential because of the need to deliver month-over-month revenue and profit consistency, despite the fact that year over year, search has proven it can be a consistent, star performer. And in better economies, it was used to prod the market because of its unique ability to instantly gauge and measure interest in products, services, messaging, brand positioning, promotions and more.

As we sit here on Cyber Monday during a time of year when experimentation can be disproportionately higher (to capitalize on naturally higher yields), do we run the risk of compromising next year’s opportunities for this year’s demand and profits?  The answer is yes. But let’s be sure that we understand the expense implications for next year when aggressive growth will be back in vogue and required by management and shareholders.  There will be zero tolerance and jobs will be on the line – talk about pressure.

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New Google Analytics Features Make it Smarter, More Powerful

Posted on November 10, 2009 by Anthony Avolio

Google Analytics adds more powerful reporting capabilities, expands mobile measurement and adds intelligence engine to drive smarter data insights.

Google Analytics

Several new features for Google Analytics were announced last month designed to make the free web analytics platform more powerful and easy to use.  Below is a highlight of several new features.

Goal tracking improvements.  In addition to increasing the number of configurable goals to 20 per profile, new site engagement goal types have been introduced.  Engagement goals can be set based on the visit duration or the number of pages viewed during a visit.  For example, a goal can be set to occur if time on site surpasses 10 minutes or after 12 pages have been viewed in a visit.  These new goal types allow site owners to measure the proportion of visits that meet a time on site or pageview threshold and are especially valuable for content websites.  AdWords advertisers can use these Google Analytics goals for campaign optimization in cases where ecommerce conversion is not applicable or the target behavior.

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