MediaPost | Search Insider

The Momentum Of Marketing

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:45:03 -0400

Activity breeds success. And that includes marketing. If you take your foot off the gas, you lose momentum. So be active in your marketing efforts. Always be producing new content, generating awareness, and raising your profile.

The Stress Of Hyper-Success

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:11:08 -0400

Increasingly, we measure ourselves against our own expectations -- and that is leading us down a dangerous path. The more access we have to the achievements of others, the more skewed our idea of success becomes. What we don't realize, however, is that we're measuring ourselves against the very highest percentile of the human population. Somewhere, a resetting of expectations is required before we self-destruct because of hyper competitiveness in trying to reach an unreachable goal.

Click Fraud's Days Are Numbered

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:28:00 -0400

Online advertising's days of Wild West-like lawlessness will soon come to an end as new validation technology, human vigilance and the improved security of smart devices are coalescing to significantly reduce the risk of click fraud that is impacting digital campaigns.

The Straw That Broke The Market's Back

Thu, 09 May 2013 10:29:23 -0400

Customers are fickle -- and I suspect they're getting more fickle. Perhaps they're even feeling a little entitled.A recent survey shows that customers tend to bail on a company not because of a big time screw-up, but because of the accumulation of a lot of little annoyances. Soon, their frustration reaches a tipping point and they look elsewhere.

Google Enhanced Campaigns: Get Ready!

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:31:52 -0400

If you are a national marketer with local brick and mortar stores, Google Enhanced is soon to be your new BFF. If you currently run a mobile-only campaign or your tablet experience is less than optimal, May is the month to test new digital strategies, since your AdWords campaigns will be automatically migrated beginning in July. A video on the Google Ads website explains that the idea behind Enhanced, first available for use in February, is to optimize AdWords around customer intent based on location, device and time of day.

Brave New Search World

Thu, 02 May 2013 23:51:18 -0400

A recent New York Times article attributed to Google the stat that "thirty-six percent of people's information needs are unmet." But that isn't stopping Google and sites like Yelp, Kayak, Amazon, LinkedIn, and Quora from trying their hardest to fill that gap. And when you add in differing experiences on different device types, the fragmentation only accelerates. But what does this fragmentation do to the search landscape? As with all things, there is some bad, some good - let's look at a (small) sample of these pros and cons:

Live By The Data, Die By The Data

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:05:11 -0400

While the Search Insiders tear up the stage in Amelia Island, Fla., I've been lurking virtually, watching the posts that emanate from the Everglades. Apparently, "Shitty" marketing is done for, Pinterest is the new darling of search marketers, and those same marketers are apparently fudging the ROI numbers on their search campaigns, over attributing to paid at the expense of organic, just so those paid search budgets don't shrink. I'm assuming all this has data to back it up.

Amelia-rating The Search Insider Buzz

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:56:00 -0400

This week is the 15th running of the search geeks, also known as the Search Insider Summit, and the 14th time I've kept the official Buzz-o-Meter for the event. (Alas, what happened at the first one in Keystone, stayed at the first one in Keystone.) Here are the top 20 buzzwords that have been dropping harder than the Amelia Island rain this week,

In The Social Search Jungle With Google And Facebook

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:00:57 -0400

Social search. It's become the buzziest of buzz words in the search space over the past 12-18 months. Google+, Facebook's Graph Search, and a host of other companies and signals of consumer data utilized for rankings have made this the hottest topic for discussion of where search is going.

Is An Android-Powered Future Inevitable?

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:54:40 -0400

The darling of the newest class of consumer technologies is undoubtedly Google's Glass. Sleek, beautiful, exciting Glass eyewear delivers a persistent layer of augmented reality (AR) to its users/wearers. It enhances the real world with additional metadata about a wearer's surroundings, performs a range of user-instructed functions, and introduces several means of communication fluidly across its interface. It's the type of technological advancement that could make the staunchest of Apple fan boys forget all about Siri. And it runs on Android.

Anchoring And Search

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:15:00 -0400

A few columns back, I talked about psychological priming and how it could play out in a search environment. In today's column, I'd like to talk about a related concept: value anchoring.

Responding To Lost Google Image Search Traffic

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:58:09 -0400

An article by SearchEngineLand's Barry Schwartz recounts recent findings that image search traffic may have dropped up to 63% this past January. The decline appears to be a result of a change made by Google to the way the search engine presents images to users selecting Image Search as an option. Before January, sites containing images accessed through Image Search were loaded into the background; now they are not. So what are your options?

The No-BS Rule

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:57:38 -0400

I have wasted a significant portion of my life dealing with BS. Mea culpa. I decided to become a marketer and it just comes with the territory. But here's the thing. Maybe it's cause I'm older, maybe it's because I'm just getting grumpier, but I'm getting less and less tolerant of BS.

Three Ways Facebook Can Get The Kids To Come Home

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:17:40 -0400

While at SXSW last month, I found myself at dinner seated next to a woman who is a well-respected social media strategist. We chatted about a dozen odd topics, but when I confided that I'm a huge Facebook fan and power user, she laughed. Facebook is last year's news. The kids have moved on. So it was with great interest that I watched (perhaps through the lens of newfound skepticism) the Facebook phone announcement last week. Getting the kids to come back to Facebook could be Home's biggest feat. I see three ways this could happen:

Don't Use Technology As An Excuse For Bad Customer Service

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:36:48 -0400

We all have our horror stories about online customer service. Just in the past two weeks, I added two more to my collection.

Creating A Seamless User Experience

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:12:39 -0400

You have thought about the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) from the point the customer hits the landing page through checkout. Now, for a truly seamless ecommerce experience, it's time to consider the UX in your SEM campaigns. You created your site's organization for ease of customer use, so let's extend that organization to your advertising.

Separating The Strategic Signal From The Tactical Noise In Marketing

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:01:54 -0400

It's somewhat ironic that, as a die-hard Darwinist, I find myself in the position of defending strategy against the onslaught of Big Data. Since my initial column on this subject a few months ago, I've been diving deeper into this topic. Here's the irony.

Spring Cleaning, Integrated Marketing-Style

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:27:03 -0400

While the groundhog might have been wrong about when winter ended, there is no escaping the fact that (in the Northern Hemisphere at least) the cold weather will eventually make way for springtime. It's time for the yearly ritual of spring cleaning. Search marketers should consider this type of cleaning for themselves as well, taking this opportunity to look at their account structures, keywords, ad creative and media mix models -- but that's not the cleanup I'm here to talk about today. It's time to look at all the ad technology solutions you have assembled over the winter and do some serious straightening up.

Google Universal Analytics Takes The DMP Mainstream

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:54:38 -0400

Last October, Google announced a new set of analytics tools called "Universal Analytics." These tools allow marketers to incorporate Web, mobile app, offline and other first- and third-party data into a single analytics framework for cross-channel/platform optimization. The goal is to help marketers better understand the full range of online and offline touch points that shape customer preference and lead to conversion.

Three Reasons Why eBay Is Wrong About Paid Search

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:12:04 -0400

Recently Harvard Business Review asked the question: "Did eBay Just Prove That Paid Search Ads Don't Work?" According to HBR, eBay conducted a study of paid search marketing habits and found that paid ads are not worth their expense and were focused on consumers who would shop on eBay regardless of whether they saw paid ads. Speaking generally, eBay suggested that brand-keyword ads have no short-term benefits, and that returns from all other keywords are minimal.

Psychological Priming And The Path To Purchase

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 23:38:40 -0400

In marketing, I suspect we pay too much attention to the destination, and not enough to the journey. We don't take into account the cumulative effect of the dozens of subconscious cues we encounter on the path to our ultimate purchase. We certainly don't understand the subtle changes of direction that can result from these cues. Search is a perfect example of this.

Narrow & Deep Or Wide & Shallow: How Does Your Tech Partner Roll?

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:46:23 -0400

If you've ever eyeballed a LUMAscape, you know there's no shortage of digital advertising technology providers. And if you've ever had to evaluate the various players within the ecosystem, you know they can be difficult to differentiate. To make sense of the options, I've found it helpful to bucket companies into two types of, well, buckets: 1) narrow and deep and 2) wide and shallow.

Don't Waffle On Making A Digital Disaster Recovery Plan

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:03:52 -0400

As a rule, any brand should have its messaging in order, including reactive ones in the event of a digital snafu. Using a basic SWOT analysis, identify potential issues including shifts in regulations, social media misuse, a competitor's surge, zombie uprisings, hacked accounts, or Mayan Apocalypses.

Beyond Key Performance Indicators: Communicating With Analytics

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:14:15 -0400

There's an art and science to delivering insight via data. Selecting appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs) is a hugely important first step, and one that I've grown accustomed to discussing in my columns. Determining how to best visualize data is arguably the next most important task. There's more required of us if we're to succeed as data-driven communicators, though. I've frequently been guilty of overlooking these requirements myself, but have come to understand that communicating effectively with analytics involves three key considerations beyond KPIs and data visuals.

Eight Ways To Prove To Google You're A 'True Merchant'

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:08:02 -0400

This past week there was big news from SXSW of great interest to etailers: First, Google's latest Panda Update will roll out in just a few days. Second, Google is further tweaking its anti-spam algorithm to further prune the ranks of "unreliable" ecommerce sites.

Sifting (And Searching) Through The Inspiration At SXSW

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:01:21 -0400

In coming to Austin, I had one simple goal: seek out insights and experiences from other industries. Since arrival, I've forced myself to break away from the usual suspects of search, social, and data analytics. Instead, I very deliberately sought topics that would expand my perspective on the digital communications landscape. I wanted to hear from thought leaders in complementary spaces. So far so good.

Viewing The World Through Google-Colored Glass

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:55:05 -0500

Let's play "What If" for a moment. For the last few columns, I've been pondering how we might more efficiently connect with digital information. Essentially, I see the stripping away of the awkward and inefficient interfaces that have been interposed between that information and us. Let's imagine, 15 years from now, that Google Glass and other wearable technology provides a much more efficient connection, streaming real-time information to us that augments our physical world. In the blink of an eye, we can retrieve any required piece of information, expanding the capabilities of our own limited memories beyond belief. We have perfect recall, perfect information -- we become omniscient.

Search Marketing Shouldn't End At the Click

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 11:53:15 -0500

As search marketers, we focus a ton of money and brainpower testing and optimizing our media to make sure we drive the best results. Most of us do our job (and do it well) and then count on other teams to take the ball to the end zone. In turn, we take what we learned from those wins and then optimize against insights from those conversions reactively. Our focus is on the advertising itself, getting the right message in front of the right person. And while we may leverage landing pages and where users go after they click, the full experience is often out of our hands. So how do we work more efficiently to make the most out of every person who clicks on one of our ads?

Mark Zuckerberg And The Voldemort Strategy

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 17:09:36 -0500

You can call it business diversification. You can call it being prudent. Whatever you call it, Facebook's announced acquisition of the Atlas digital advertising platform last week marked a very peculiar day in the history of the world's most popular social network. In acquiring Atlas, Facebook may have made its clearest move in pursuit of what I call the "Voldemort strategy."

The Keyword Or The Content? A Modern-Day Chicken And Egg

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 11:12:58 -0500

It's interesting how everyday assignments can sometimes challenge core conventional wisdom. I was speaking with a new client recently about very broad digital marketing opportunities. This client had extended our meeting invitation to a consultant who had been retained to manage search engine marketing specifically. I began the conversation by starting down a familiar path: discussing business goals, key performance indicators (KPIs), requisite content and offers.