Tag Archives: Search Marketing

Back to School with Google’s Free Research Tool

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Paul Freibott

Just in time for Back to School campaigns, a practical demonstration of how online marketers can get the most leverage from Google Insights for Search  – for free

With retailers and parents alike getting ready for back-to-school shopping, it’s a good time to remind ourselves of the need to do our own homework as marketers. We’ve written before about third-party keyword research tools, which are irreplaceable for competitive research but also a considerable financial investment, especially for small to mid-size companies.  Happily, anyone can use one of the best, deepest data resources available for search trends completely for free.

Cram Session:  How to Use Google Insights for Search

Google Insights for Search is essentially a souped-up version of Google Trends, the search engine’s simple report on “Hot Topics” and “Hot Searches.”  Beyond merely finding out what’s hot right now, the Insights tool offers the ability to analyze historical search patterns.  You can track searches as far back as 2004 (further even than most paid tools) and quickly grasp the seasonality of particular keywords as well as entire market segments.  Note that you’ll need to log into any Google account (you probably already have one via Gmail) to access certain features, like indexes.

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PM Digital Spring Apparel Study Released

Posted on June 7, 2010 by PM Digital Research

Our lastest Rewind report on paid search performance underscores dramatic improvements for apparel retailers in Spring 2010. 

PM Digital’s latest Rewind report has been released with a look at paid search performance for apparel retailers during the 2010 Spring fashion season.  And the news was very good.  Consumers shopping online for apparel increased their total paid search demand by an impressive 33 percent over the same months in 2009.  Even better, apparel marketers achieved this swell in demand from February through April with a modest increase of 2 percent in year-over-year spend, revealing that search ad dollars went further this year than they did at the same time last year, with CPCs falling by -1 percent.   

Click here for a full copy of the PM Digital 2010 Spring Apparel Rewind Study.

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Keyword Selection for Paid Search

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Suzy Sandberg

It often seems like a race to keep up with the escalating complexity of paid search. From an agency perspective, changes to process, technology and training are frequently necessary in order to accommodate the evolution. Many of these changes enable us to move the needle here and there on leveraging performance, but the core of a solid paid search campaign hasn’t really changed that much.

Paid search is fundamentally about presenting a relevant ad to someone who enters a keyword in a search engine. Every month, 60% of the searches on Google are brand new. With the keyword list being the pillar of the paid search campaign, keyword selection is essential. Technology now exists to scrape a page and cull a list, but the fundamental strategies for effective keyword selection remain the same now as they have been for years. Here are some of the basic keyword selection tactics that apply to the retail vertical.

Top Sellers: Site analytics can determine the top selling products through direct load and natural search. These words should be part of the paid search campaign.

Top Searched Products on the Site: Site analytics can inform what people are searching for on the site, and these words should be included in the paid search campaign. Products being searched for but not sold by the merchant should be given to the merchandising team to potentially expand the product line.

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Google Remarketing: CPC Pricing Model Has Edge over Competitors

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Suzy Sandberg

Google has launched a remarketing product with similar functionality to what the other big remarketing providers offer (Acerno, Dotomi, Advertising.com, etc).  The technical implementation is about the same.  A Google pixel needs to be installed on the advertiser’s website which facilitates the remarketing.  When a visitor comes to the website and leaves without taking the desired action (buying, inquiring, etc), the person will be subsequently shown display (or text) ads in an effort to lure the person back to the site. These ads will follow the person around the internet provided that the sites they visit are within Google’s network.  The size of Google’s network is on par with that of the other big ad networks, so from an audience perspective, the reach is competitive.

The way Google has chosen to price this product, however, sets it apart from the other remarketing providers.  Google’s structure is CPC, whereas the other companies charge CPM or CPA.  Cost-wise, the CPC model has a clear advantage.  Comparatively, the cost savings to the advertiser can be huge.

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