In case you missed it, you can watch it on-demand or go through the slide deck at your own pace.

Mike’s tips from the webinar include:
Tip 1: CIOs and CMOs don’t always get it
Tip 2: Stick to the value, not the tactics
Tip 3: Be specific about the goals
Tip 4: Be ready to answer hard questions
Tip 5: Never Stop Selling

Jennifer provided some great questions and answers, framing them in a way that a lot of marketers can relate to.

• Question #1 from Execs: SEM/SEO, what is it? What they really want to know: Will this help me get new customers?
• Question/Statement #2 from Execs: I searched for “water” and we didn’t show up. What they really want to know: Why am I paying for this if my friends can’t see it?
• Question #3 from Execs: Why aren’t we doing video/social media/email? What they really want to know: What cool things can I show my friends we’re doing?

You can sum it up as Educate, Show Improvements, Show ROI, Stay the Course, and…Educate. For the whole story, watch the webinar now.

As part of Google’s phasing out of the AdWords Report Center, the traditional ‘Search Query Performance’ report is no longer available. But there are new and better ways to mine this critical data for gold nuggets!

Using Google AdWords reports to track performance of the keywords you are bidding on is fundamental to search marketing success, and the ease with which this can be done is a source of delight for search marketers, especially when compared to measuring traditional forms of advertising. For any given keyword you are bidding on, take ‘industrial supplies’ for example, it is easy to get metrics like impressions, clicks, conversions, cost per conversion and then make decisions that will lead to better performance.

Most folks also realize the additional value of being able to dig a little deeper to see the actual search queries that users are typing into the search box. This information can uncover some real gold that may otherwise be overlooked, because if you are bidding on ‘industrial supplies’ on anything other than exact match, your ad could very well be showing up for search terms like: ‘cheap industrial supplies‘, ‘industrial supplies oregon‘, ‘industrial equipment and supplies‘, ‘industrial painting supplies‘ and thousands of other variations. Some of these may be valuable, others may be fool’s gold.

Not so very long ago in the short history of search engine marketing, this data was not as accessible as many would’ve liked, served up only in a special report, with large chunks of information missing. (The infamous ‘other unique queries’.)

Times change (quickly) and this industry evolves (rapidly) and now more complete search query data is available from a couple of sources. At the same time, the traditional Search Query Performance report has been phased out of the AdWords Report Center – along with just about every other kind of report. So let’s look at how we can get at the AdWords search query gold now:

1. Within AdWords Keyword data in UI: Recent enhancements to the AdWords user interface include the ability to generate an ‘on the fly’ report on search terms. From the ‘Keywords’ tab, you can select the ‘See search terms’ button to go to a report on search terms. This shows all the search terms used, with indications as to which ones you are currently bidding on. The nice thing here is that you can instantly add keywords or even add negative keywords directly from this report. And you can also download the report in CSV format.

2. Google Analytics AdWords data: With the recent AdWords reporting enhancements to Google Analytics, it is easy to get a look at actual search terms being used. Simply go to ‘Traffic Sources’>’AdWords beta’>’Keywords’ and then use the second dimension box to select ‘Matched Search Query’. Here you get a nice side-by-side listing of keywords you are bidding on along with matched terms. The additional advantage, of course, is that you get all that juicy post-click behavioural data, such as bounce rate, goal completions, and – if you have Ecommerce tracking set up – revenue. Now that’s real gold!

So there are 2 ways to mine a little deeper into your AdWords account and use search query data to improve performance of your keyword advertising. Both of these methods offer some advanced flexibility and power compared to the old AdWords Search Query Performance report. And using either one of them can yield some golden opportunities.

I had a chance to sit down with YouSendIt’s Director of Product Marketing, Angela Sanfilippo, at their office in California just before our latest B2B Expert Series: Face-to-Face event. We talked through the advances her team has made over the past few months with their paid search campaigns. This success has led to increased investment in SEM moving forward.

This webinar will be of interest to other marketers that have struggled to get budget increases for paid Search. It also highlights the power of campaign segmentation, vital for a company like YouSendIt that works across various markets, and in B2B/B2C.

The Opportunity Cost of PPC

Date: January 19, 2010
Time: 11 am PST
Length: 30 minutes
Webinar registration >>

What would happen if you turned off all PPC advertising for a month?

This is exactly what the YouSendIt marketing team did last October, a risky manoeuver which ended up proving the value of their search marketing program.

In this 30-minute case study webinar, an Enquiro client shares her recent B2B/B2C marketing success that has been driven by paid search.

1. Improved SEM performance through proper segmentation of campaigns

We take a look at how YouSendIt increased the number of subscriptions to their service by 70% while also reducing overall ad budget. Strategic adjustments effectively reduced cost-per-click by 18%, and increased the amount of qualified traffic from paid search.

2. The importance of nurturing a lead

Once they’re in the door, it’s important to maintain the conversation. Search marketing’s effectiveness increases when coupled with email nurturing.

3. Demonstrating the value of search internally

YouSendIt’s Director of Product Marketing, Angela Sanfilippo, was faced with the challenge that many marketers face: prove to the board that the money you’re spending on paid search is actually driving revenue. In this webinar, Angela walks us through the numbers and her approach.

Case Study Background
YouSendIt offers an online solution for independent professionals and businesses for sending, receiving and tracking large files and digital content without email and ftp limitations. YouSendIt has over 10 million users across 220 countries. Prior to initiating an SEM partnership with Enquiro, YouSendIt was running a paid campaign that drove few leads and qualified visitors at a high cost per lead of $442. They needed help in developing a more robust sponsored search strategy that would increase the number of registrations and subscriptions while reducing overall costs.

Presented by:

Angela Sanfilippo
Director of Product Marketing, YouSendIt

Angela Sanfilippo has over 13 years in the marketing industry with a multi-faceted background in brand strategy and awareness, marketing communications, product marketing and demand generation strategies. Currently, Angela Sanfilippo is the Director of Marketing for YouSendIt Inc, the number-one secure digital file delivery company serving professionals, businesses and government agencies on the Web. As Director of Marketing, Angela is responsible for establishing YouSendIt’s market leadership in file transfer services and oversees the company’s demand generation and user acquisition strategies. Prior to joining YouSendIt, Angela held various management positions at Rainmaker Systems, an outsourced provider of sales and marketing services managing B2B technology clients such as HP, CA, Lenovo, Sybase and Symantec and the HotJobs.com division of Yahoo! Inc.

Angie Dzwonkiewicz
Search Marketing Strategist, Enquiro

Angie brings forth a background knowledge and expertise in email marketing and community relations with skills in reporting and analysis, building strong operating mechanisms and process management. She manages several of Enquiro’s B2B client accounts, and worked with YouSendIt to deliver impressive results for their PPC campaigns.

Hosted by Bill Barnes – Enquiro’s EVP of Business Development

Mr. Barnes is a marketing veteran who has been in the marketing, advertising and promotion industry for over 20 years, the last 10 of which have been focused on Search Marketing. He co-founded Enquiro along with Gord Hotchkiss in 1999. Mr. Barnes is a featured speaker at events presented by Search Engine Strategies, Ad-Tech, Jupiter Media, SIPA, Forrester Research and Frost and Sullivan. He has also conducted workshops designed for Marketing, Editorial and Public Relations departments.

At Enquiro Bill has overseen explosive sales growth. In fact, Enquiro was listed on Deloitte’s 2004 North American Technology Fast 500 and has appeared on Profit Magazine’s Top 100 for three consecutive years. Bill has extensive experience in setting up and implementing Search Marketing and Research campaigns for such companies as AIG, AT&T, IBM, HP, Lexis/Nexis, Siemens and Grainger and strives to always help companies succeed in Search.

Over the past several months, in part due to increased economic pressures, we have seen an increase of importance placed on improving return on investment (ROI) from search-based activity, particularly from PPC campaigns. ROI attribution and measurement becomes especially important when justifying the cost of the online sponsored advertising and improving the return on advertising spend (ROAS). Here are some tips on improving your search performance and getting the best ROI possible.

1.      Know Your Analytics

This statement may seem fairly redundant, but all too often search marketers find themselves flying blind without proper analytics. Much of this article will focus on using analytics to optimize for ROI and knowing the limitations of your own analytics program is extremely important. Additionally, ensure that your ROI metrics are tied back to search-related key performance indicators (KPIs).

 ROI attribution can become more cumbersome in the business-to-business (B2B) market place as sales cycles can be extremely long as well as potential of the sale occurring offline. In cases such as this, ensuring lead sources can be captured into CRM systems can provide vital statistics to the health of your campaign. (Yes, pun intended) Several CRM programs, such as SalesForce and Oracle, offer integration with some of the leading Analytics software providers. Simple Access or Excel spreadsheets can also be used to tieback the sales, lead value, or other KPIs to your search activities.

 2.      Optimize Landing Page Performance

So you’ve paid for the click; what now? Your landing page and ad copy must work together to assist in the sale of your product and convince the user into taking your desired action and converting into a lead/sale. On average, you only have 8 seconds to reassure the prospect that you are what they are looking for and convince them to stick around.

 Landing page testing is incredibly important to the success of a paid search campaign and to improving ROI. With a landing page the simple combination of titles, copy, images, and call-to-action can make sweeping differences in the performance of the page. The difficult question is which combination? Unfortunately; other than best practices there is a limited supply of instructions and guidelines to assist search marketers in developing the perfect landing page, but there are testing tools that can help us along the way. Testing tools can range in abilities and cost, but one of the better landing page testing tools on the market is Google Website Optimizer. It is fairly intuitive, easy to implement, and provides clear results analysis, best part is that it’s FREE.

 Your landing pages are perhaps one of the most important factors influencing the ROAS for Paid Campaigns. Simple landing page testing can be an easy quick win for any paid search campaign.

 3.      Optimize Conversion Paths 

Conversion path optimization is the next important aspect of ROI optimization. We all know that attrition occurs at each stage of the conversion path, the key to optimizing ROI is mitigating the loss at these key stages.

 Many of the analytics tools on the market do offer conversion funnel analysis which will allow you to dive deeper into the ‘fall out’ that occurs at each stage in the process. The key objective in this analysis is to determine at which stage in the funnel you are getting the largest amount of abandonment. Once you know where the users are leaving the funnel, you can then focus in on the potential problems with that page; what barrier exists, hindering final conversion?

 Enquiro’s has used funnel analysis to optimize conversion funnels for its clients and has improved the conversion rates by up to 150%.

 4.      Leverage your SEO & SEM Together

Enquiro’s research has proven a significant branding advantage can be achieved by having a top paid ranking and top organic ranking above the fold. However, budgets can be saved by lowering paid ad exposure for those key phrases also occupying top organic position; allowing for more focus in other key opportunities.

 With your SEM campaign, you are able to quickly test the traffic volumes and conversion rates for many keywords as well as determine what the best messaging is for communicating with your market. This knowledge can then be applied to your SEO efforts to help mitigate the costs of PPC. Although organic rankings take time to take achieve, there is significant benefit the can be attained by gaining organic rankings for your top search phrases.

 Additionally, through landing page testing and ad testing, it’s possible to determine what messaging resonates with your target audience and which calls-to-actions are most effective.

 5.      Trim the Fat

We all have heard of the 80/20 rule, but in paid search campaigns it’s more like the 95/5 rule. Ninety-Five percent of your revenue will come from 5% of your keywords. Using your analytics and appropriately tagging your conversions to indicate, on the keyword-level, the source information can assist you in finding those 5% of the keywords and truly optimizing those ad groups. On the flipside this source can also indicate which keywords are simply driving up costs without producing results.

 This should not be confused with eliminating long-tail keywords because they simply have not collected significant click volumes, but more so, finding those head and torso keywords that are costing a lot of money without driving conversions. Don’t be afraid to lose the dead weight in your campaigns.

 6.      Use Testing Budgets

When looking at paid search campaigns, once you feel you have developed a winning formula, there is a hesitancy to not want to mess with it. I know this feeling all to well, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it; but the truth of the matter is, if you don’t break it once in a while innovation cannot occur. To work around the hesitancy of making changes for fear of losing ground or ROI, assign a certain percentage of your budget that can be used for testing. Depending on how risk adverse you are, will determine how much you will assign.

 Using a testing budget (in a separate campaign or even account) will allow you to perform keyword analysis, landing page testing, A/B ad copy testing, as well as experiment with different bidding strategies without affecting the performance of the main account. Once a winning strategy has been proven it can be migrated over to the main account to improve its performance overall.

 One important caveat about testing to remember: one experiment = one independent variable. That is to say only make one change at a time; otherwise you will have difficulty in attributing positive or negative results to the correct changes.

7.      Leverage Quality Score

Although I  normally encourage focus be placed on optimizing based on conversions, optimizing  on the basis of quality score has its advantages, there is nothing detrimental from using quality score to enhance your ROI. So what do I mean with that seeming contradiction in terms? Simple, look at the quality score suggestions and your campaign goals. Make the changes to your quality score that will not adversely affect your campaign. For example, using your ads to pre-qualify visitors may decrease your CTR; in turn negatively affecting the quality score. However, pre-qualifying visitors prior to their click will achieve a stronger Conversion rate, thereby increasing your ROI. Using keywords in the ad copy and landing page can boost the quality score without losing the pre-qualifying messaging.

 8.      Use Micro Conversions as an ROI Indicator

Sometimes it’s not always easy to attribute ROI to your paid search campaigns, in fact in most cases its down right difficult. There is hope, however, in using micro conversions. Micro conversions are those actions that a user will take on the path to conversion. For example sites using a demo can calculate the conversion rates from demos to leads to sales. It simply takes a bit of reverse engineering to the sales cycle and determining values.

 However, with appropriate analytics, you know the demo to lead ratio, the lead to sale ratio, and average sale amount; therefore using your average sale amount multiplied by your lead to sale ratio, gives you your value per lead, then simply multiply that once again by your demo to lead ratio and you’ve calculated your value per demo. The same can be applied for filling out a contact us form, engaging in an online chat with a sales person, adding to cart, product customization, etc. Micro Conversions can assist in determining the value of a paid visitor by the actions taken leading up to the offline sales process where tracking can be more difficult, impossible even.

This is the final installment of the 4-part series on key PPC best practices (PPC Best Practices Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3).

Speak Their Language

There has been constant debate as to what to use for keyword analysis with regards to long-tail versus head phrases and which yields the better results. Head phrases are the very generic and broad search queries where there is enormous search volume, but costs associated with the keywords are quite high. Torso keywords are the more-specific keywords; the 2- to 4-word search queries that still have lower search volume compared to the head phrases, but also tend to be cheaper. Long-tail keywords are the keyword phrases over 4 words where the costs tend to be minimal, but search volume is also sparse.

When doing keyword development, first look at the torso phrases and develop your keyword strategy using 2- to 4-word search queries to develop the keyword basket. Once you have the torso phrases, run the account and closely monitor the performance of the individual keywords down to your most granular KPI (ideally ROI or cost per conversion on the keyword level).

Once you know which keywords are driving highly-qualified traffic in the torso, it is then possible to look at the longer-tail keywords associated with the high converting torso phrases. Accounts with literally millions of keywords are not necessary when only a small percentage are actually working; spend where the ROI is made.

When developing your keyword basket, make sure you step into the mind of the searcher. Which keywords is your target market most likely to be using when searching for your product/service? Ensure you are not simply bidding on the marketing language you use internally, but also the language with which your market is most likely to initiate a search. (Hint: Talk to your sales department. They know the language your customers will be using.)

We recently took over a PPC campaign from a client doing it in-house and our first step was to look at the keywords. By refining the keywords based on user intention we decreased the Cost Per Click (CPC) by 23% and doubled the Click Through Rate (CTR). The conversion rate also increased substantially.

It is also possible to break out keywords by the Purchase Decision Process (PDP). By paying close attention to the keyword refinement process, it is possible to determine which keywords are being used at the beginning of the research phase, in the consideration and comparison phase and in the purchase intent phase of the PDP. By allocating these keywords into appropriate campaigns, you can then control the budgets associated with those keywords and effectively increase ROI, awareness, brand reach or whatever your PPC goals are.

Quality Score Is an Indicator, Not a Destination

There has been lots of debate around quality score and what it means to PPC advertisers. The long and short of a quality score is that it is designed to assist the customer. Google and Yahoo (with MSN just coming on board) have been using quality scoring to increase the quality of ads to improve the user experience. That being said, quality score should not be managed.

If you, as the advertiser, are looking to provide the consumer with the best experience possible (a good idea if you’re looking for conversions), then your quality score should naturally be good. A colleague of mine, Chris Davies, gave the perfect analogy for quality score: "It’s the ‘check engine’ light." If you have a poor quality score it serves as indication that it’s time to look under the hood and see what’s causing the issue. Look to your ad copy, landing pages and keywords, or reassign ad groups to adjust your quality score.

Ultimately, if you have a poor quality score and conversion rate is good and cost per conversion is good, then the few cents difference a better quality score can make is irrelevant.

Stop Measuring Cost Per Click; Start Measuring Cost Per Conversion

Ultimately, every change made to a PPC campaign should be to lower the cost per conversion. Therefore, don’t be afraid to bid aggressively on high-converting, high-quality, traffic-generating keywords and bid lower on the other 90% in your campaign if at the end of the day you are achieving the end goal.

Don’t Guess… Test

With a PPC campaign, testing is the campaign manager’s best friend. Testing is a constant, iterative process that must be followed to refine the effectiveness of your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns. Multivariate testing can be as complex as developing a multitude of landing pages and testing multiple aspects (such as images, titles and page copy, to name a few) or as simple as using versions of a landing page or ads in A/B tests and constantly refining the best performing versions.

The key with a testing strategy is to balance the size of the test with the size of the account. The larger the test, the longer the testing process needed to gain statistically-relevant data. No matter what the size of the test, budgeting the necessary time is as important as budgeting the media spend.

Don’t Get Punished for Bad Behavior

Behavioral targeting has become one of the more popular buzzwords in the industry and rightly so; after all, the better we can target our market the more effective our campaigns. Several options are available to better target our online market, including geo-targeting, day-parting and demographic targeting.

For example, geo-targeting can be used to communicate more efficiently with users in a particular region and better allocate your product offering. After all, selling snow shovels in Florida wouldn’t be particularly advantageous, whereas selling air conditioners would be.

Finally, it is possible to target based on demographics. This targeting is most effective when using a content network and using site targeting based on the demographics of the audience for a particular site. However, although the information is available through such tools as MSN’s Ad Intelligence, I would stay away from disqualifying keywords because they are not in line with your target market’s demographics.

For example, according to the US Census data, most HR managers tend to be female, yet in targeting this audience I would not disqualify the keyword "Human Resources Management" because the demographics are skewed towards men. One of the marketing basics that’s literally been engrained into all marketers is to advertise where your market is and one very effective behavioral targeting mechanism is the use of vertical engines in your paid search strategy.

Get Vertical

Vertical search engines are an effective method of lowering CPC and improving the overall quality of traffic. The quality of the searches with a vertical search engine also tends to be better due to the increased propensity for buyers to use vertical search engines later in the purchase decision process. This presents an opportunity for those with more limited budgets (and those with the budget, too) to more effectively spend online and generate higher ROI.

Vertical engines also offer the ability to access a much more targeted audience which will allow you to develop custom ad copy for the particular demographic. Although the traffic on vertical engines is no where near what it is on Google, Yahoo, or MSN, it is important not to discount these engines from any paid search strategy.  The ROAS that can be gained from advertising on vertical engines can far exceed what any mainstream engine can provide. The detriment to working on vertical engines are the differing revenue models ranging from CPC to fixed cost and the management nuances to be learned for each engine.

Of course there is a lot more to these best practices than the little snippets above, but those will be the subjects of future, more in-depth articles to come. For the continuation of this series, please visit PPC Best Practices Part 4.

Plan to Measure; then Measure the Plan

As you move forward with your PPC campaign, ensure you are able to effectively measure your KPIs through your analytics tracking. With several of our clients, we are using keyword-level ROI to ensure we can accurately spend the budget where we are making the highest returns. This measurement includes being able to merge data from several sources in order to accurately measure the effect of each keyword on the business.

B2B sales in the online environment are really no different than in the offline environment: The sales process is much longer than in B2C, and relationship development is a primary concern. Knowing this fact, it is important to ensure your analytics are set to measure the multitude of conversions that may occur and assign ROI values to each conversion.

Tip: Ensure your cookie duration is enabled to match the average sales cycle timeline at a minimum.

K.I.S.S Rule Applied to Conversion Path Optimization

Once you have a set of clearly defined goals and are able to effectively measure the necessary KPIs, it’s time to turn to the conversion path. The traditional thought is that the path to conversion starts on the landing page, when, in fact, it starts with the moment the user interacts with your ad on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

All of the tactics you use (including ad copy, targeting, landing page messaging and the subsequent site conversion path) must be dictated by the end goal. Every interaction or step in the conversion process should take the user in one continuous motion towards the intended conversion. Messaging and offers should maintain a consistent theme to gain the conversion and nurture the lead into a prospect for the sales department. The conversion path should provide all of the information the user needs along the way to make the decision whether to purchase or not.

Enquiro’s own research on B2B purchase decision behavior provides valuable insight as to what content to place on your site and in your conversion path. Ensure that traffic, once on the site, can convert on landing pages quickly and easily. Ask yourself several questions:

1. Is the conversion path simple and intuitive?
2. What is the intention of the users on this page?
3. What information are they looking for (pricing, competitive comparisons, product specs, company information)?
4. What goal do you want users to complete?
5. Are there any distractions or unnecessary information on the pages in the conversion funnel?
6. Are your calls-to-action conspicuously positioned?
7. Is your offer (whitepapers, podcasts, eBooks, demos, complimentary trials, etc.) relevant to users’ needs?

 Please check back next week for PPC Best Practices – Part 3 of this Series.

• Constantly Reading, Sucks: Providing course material to your trainees is important but don’t overload them with constant reading. There will come a time where their ability to absorb content through line and lines of text will simply run out. I suggest mixing up the textual content with audio and video, additionally I recommend you introduce scenario based training. Scenario based training is way for trainees to get their hands dirty with tasks that they will face on a day to day basis. If you’re providing training for an agency or even in-house training, create tasks that are related to current issues that the company is facing, you never know what kind of innovative ideas some fresh minds could come up with.
   
• Create a Relationship: When you’re training someone it’s important that you create an open door policy right from the start so that your student(s) can approach you with any questions related to the training program or search marketing in general. Throughout the training program, schedule some regular time with your students to ask them how they’re doing with course material. This will keep the students stay engaged with the training program and help you design a course which is custom rather than "cookie cutter." 
   
• Get Feedback: Your search marketing training program is not going to be perfect right off the bat and it may not be perfect for a while, but the idea is to continually tweak your program with feedback from the people who are undertaking the training. Whether it’s your clients or your co-workers, it’s important to get their comments/suggestions in-relation to the course content, their ability to understand the concepts, the level of difficulty of the material and the relevancy of the course material to real-life business situations.

Original Post: Web Analytics World