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The Paid Search Sweet Spot
It was an average ad position of 2.5 in paid search.

We couldn’t explain why, but some how if our average ad position was 2.5, then the average cpc, conversion rate and customer value all aligned to hit our targets. It was basic math. By why 2.5? We couldn’t say, but we dubbed it “The Sweet Spot” and for a while it held.

If we bid higher to get further up the results, the conversions couldn’t justify the increase bids (in some cases the conversions decreased). If we drew back, the conversion dropped too much, the ROI just disappeared for us (or close to it). Yup, The Sweet Spot was 2.5.

I could have given a webinar on The Sweet Spot. I had all the numbers showing how this one place in the ad rankings was key to financial freedom, independence and untold fortunes for the company. I would have been able to show explicitly how this was better than 2.9 or 2.1, backed up with numbers to support my case. I might have called the presentation, “The Sweet Spot, A Guaranteed Strategy To A Perfect Paid Search Program.” It’s simple, easily demonstrated and easily replicated.

The only problem is it was also bullshit. Things changed and 2.5 became the outcast. Our managers worked through the problems and once again we saw the program re-optimized. The change could have been caused by any number of things in and out of our control. But, tagging ourselves to a position was not a long term strategy, but an opportunistic tactic.

This is the issue with so many of the seminars I’ve watched over the years. The presenters take something akin to “The Sweet Spot” and convince a fair number of people that success is simple. Just repeat what I’ve done and you to will be the Paid Search phenom in your organization. If only life were so simple.

It is not that these things are all bad, or bad at all. Many are legitimate tactics. But none are “the only” strategy. These seminars can have two detrimental effects for paid search programs:
1. Search managers looking for the silver bullet will jump from one unrelated tactic to another, with no strategic connection between them. This lack of continuity or true planning causes the learnings to be lost in the process. Instead of building on what one learns, each change tends to be a complete tear down and rebuild.
2. Unreasonable expectations. I saw one session where a person who “followed the process” experienced a 1400% increase in CTR. I can only imagine that the program was set up so horribly wrong to start, or the result was an isolation of one very bad part that was separated from the rest. An entire program that increased the CTR by 1400%? Not buying it. But, my skepticism comes from 20+ years in digital marketing. A person who is periodically involved or relatively new to search may jump at this.
These webinars are not devoid of value. Often the tactics are solid and if presented as tactics to be tried and not the ultimate solution, they can have a positive impact. When watching these webinars, consider the context in which these case studies take place (if they provide that level of detail). Industry, shopper habits, competitive landscapes, search engine environment, etc. With a simple overview, you can quickly determine if a tactic is applicable to your program.

If it is applicable, then see where it fits in your overall optimization plan; don’t just throw it into your program. How you implement the tactic should be informed by your history and results of passed optimizations.
June 15, 2015
Google Plus Launches Collections

Google+ makes content discovery easier for users through a format similar to Pinterest boards. This gives people the ability to curate content and share it with others that have similar interests.

Making this more powerful is the ability to curate different types of content and make the overall experience more helpful with long form posts and interaction. For companies, this can become a great way to keep deep content in specific areas together, while not dominating their core profile with narrow subject areas.

Ford can have the core G+ page and collections for each model, with images, discussions and advice / help content, etc.

Furniture stores can similarly create Collections for rooms, decor styles, or trends.

Hospitality or hotels chains can curate collections of key markets and tourist attractions or events along with interactions with the users.

Some Collections I thought were kind of neat:

Dateline #DisneyWorld

Cities and Streets

Social Media Academy

Game Lounge

June 5, 2015
Marketing Automation… are you really ready for it?

Marketing Automation (MA) is hot. A lot of companies are engaging tools like Pardot, Marketo, Hubspot to send messages, share information, tweets, post and pretty much push out just about any utterance their marketing department can think up.

This is great! Set up a drip campaign, nurturing campaign, journey or any number of other euphemisms for a communication program and you’re ready to go.

Not really.

Often there is very little distinction between the messages to various segments, usually because the segments are not defined. Before you invest in MA you need to determine your resources and commitment to segmenting your customers / prospects, scoring and analytics while managing truly unique communication programs.

Segmenting

You know about segmenting, we talk about it all the time. Marketing automation works best when you have distinct buyer profiles, defined by objective data points, who require unique information to keep their interest.

When creating your segments or profiles, avoid using pure demographic data unless it truly impacts buying behavior or interests. In addition to behavior defining demographics (if any), look at behaviors and activities that indicate interests and possible future actions. What we really want to influence is consumer behavior, so focus your segments accordingly.

Don’t over complicate it. If you’re unsure, answer the questions: “How will I communicate differently based on this information?” and, “Will this communication differential impact the consumer’s behavior?

Scoring

For organizations that employ a direct sales teams or active direct sales communications, you have to be able to layer on a Score for each contact that fluctuates based on activity. This activity is focused on elements such as opening emails, click patterns, downloads, inbound calling and other actions that indicate a change in their level of interest in your particular product. In other words, where is the consumer in the buying cycle.

For each Scoring activity there are points assigned. As the points increase, so does the involvement of the direct sales team. Should a prospect download multiple whitepapers on your service, it might be time for a sales person to make a phone call.

Conversely, as they activity diminishes, so does the score. Phone calls made that go unanswered, periods of time since last website visit, etc. As the score decreases, the person moves away from direct sales activity to nurturing programs.

Profile Activity vs Scoring Activity

The differentiator between marketing automation Profile Activity and Scoring activity is identified by those activities that provide insight into “what” versus “when”.

Profile scores help identify two “Whats”. What is the person interested in and what kind of communication or information influences them. Some key areas to look at include subject of content viewed or downloaded. What are they looking at and is the activity frequent enough to form a segment element. If you have multiple lines of services or products, keeping your communication focused on those lines the person actively consumes may warrant a distinct segment element.

“When” activities refers to where the person is in the buying cycle, usually involves some level of frequency measure and impacts the scoring. If they downloaded three whitepapers, their score may increment 3 times by the score value assigned to whitepaper downloads. If the total score reaches a certain level, the contact becomes a warm prospect and may be worth a phone call, special offer of some other purchase encouraging action.

Communication

Drip programs, Journeys, campaigns, whatever you want to call them, they take time to plan, setup and manage. The messaging and creative executions need to be unique and purposeful, with an eye toward encouraging specific action on the part of the contact. This takes time, resources and commitment on the part of the organization. It’s more than simply writing a different piece for each Segment Profile or stage along the communication path. All these pieces have an objective and you have to measure the results.

Marketing Automation Analytics

Key to any marketing program, and especially digital marketing, is the ability to measure the results. Are you achieving what you set out to achieve?

Most marketing automation platforms are good at giving you specific data points. Did the email get sent, did it get open, did the person click, did they buy (for closed loop implementations)? The MA systems provide aggregate insight into macro activity, and nuanced information for a particular contact. But getting to the true aggregate behavior that allows you to assess what took place and provide insight into why (at least directionally) it worked or not, you need to tie MA communications into an overall analytics package such as Google Analytics.

Understanding the behavior on the website or with your app helps you understand what changes may improve your program. MA is about sending and receiving communication to achieve an outcome. Analytics is about understanding behavior. The two have to come together.

Are you ready for Marketing Automation?

I’ve seen whiteboards filled with possible elements for profiles, scoring models and subsequent follow up activity. Even simple programs require well thought out profiles, scoring and communication planning married to well thought out analytics and reporting.

The successful marketing automation programs are resource intensive. If you are going to spend the money on the MA system, also invest in the proper resources to run it.

If your are ready, here are some of Marketing Automation companies. Marketo, HubSpot, Pardot, AutopilotHQ.

Fanatically Digital can work with you to implement MA. Give us a call to see how we can help 800.516.7440.

May 9, 2015
Apple watch… great for (too) easy amazon ordering

Scott at CNET now owns an xbox. Didn’t want one, but the Apple Watch makes it so easy with the Amazon 1 click to order…well, he did.

April 24, 2015
Email Opt-out: more than being polite

I had an interesting conversation with the head of a company that has an email campaign running. Its been running for a while. The conversation moved to opt-outs and how they were getting them (as most programs do). He casually mentioned that maybe he could move these folks back into the active list.

My reaction was initially amused silence. Then when I realized he was serious, I told him he can’t do that. He was puzzled. He said that he knows it might not be polite, but they have new things to offer them and he’d like to get them back on the active list. He wasn’t trying to be sneaky and really seemed unaware of CAN-SPAM laws.

After explaining the high-level implications of what he was contemplating, we discussed the basics of the law and what he had to do to be compliant. We covered the range from stating that the email is an ad, honesty in the subject, to (continued) easy opt-out with a physical address as well as some of the elements of a commercial message versus a transaction message. At the end, he said “So, we’re not just being polite?”

The thing is he is smart (I mean really smart) and he wanted to treat his customers / prospects the right way. His intended actions were well motivated, yet still risked crippling fines.

Email service providers (ESPs) such as mailchimp, constant contact or marketing automation platforms like Pardot, Marketo hubspot or Autopilothq all have the ability to keep you on the right side of the law. But you need to abide by the rules the systems have in place. These are designed with good marketing and compliance in mind.

One of the ways to mitigate email opt-outs is to provide users with options. Too many companies provide a single opt-out link that provides an “all or nothing” decision for the users. A better program is to create email categories to which individuals can subscribe or unsubscribe, leaving the company with an option to continue their engagement. Even if you don’t have distinct content categories, you can create frequency categories – daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly options are easy alternative no contact at all.

As you develop email programs, the best way to combat opt-outs is to develop segments in order to provide people with relevant content to keep them engaged and increase the value of the communication. By segmenting content and allowing people to subscribe to the different elements you can minimize the opt-outs. This provides value to both the users and the company.

As part of a well developed email program with segments good marketers use content cross-promotion to increase engagement. As people find more content they like, you can increase the value and decrease the likelihood of complete opt-outs. The key to the successful programs is to provide people with value.

More often now we see the engagement with users cross-channels. Email and social communication can re-enforce each other. By combining editorial calendars for email and social, the users can engage the companies as best suits them. This can mitigates opt-outs, but also gives people another alternative to disengaging entirely from the brand. Email marketing should not be treated in isolation. Combining with social engagements will help maintain an ongoing dialogue with customers and prospects.

April 24, 2015
Art & Intuition When Data Is Not There

Analytics is a great tool for helping us make decisions and take action. As a representation of behavior, it helps us respond to customers and see the impact of our actions. However, analytics only represents “what” but not “why” people behave in the way they do.

For some marketers this is a blind spot. Over dependence on numbers leads to paralysis or to erroneous decisions when working with a blank canvas and are absent the necessary intuition to provide the initial direction.

While we spend much time discussing analytics and big data, the reality is that the majority of businesses do not have deep stores of data on their customers, yet have to make decisions about how to approach the markets.

In this situation creating a starting point based on an understanding of the industry and an intuitive sense of the market, combined with tracking and analytics, is the best way to get moving. Since you are not starting with the answers, you have to implement programs in a way to derive the answers.

One approach is the “shotgun” approach and see what you hit. With careful tracking we can identify the segments, messages, campaigns that have the best chance of success while weeding out the elements that do not work. This approach identifies the opportunities relatively quickly but has a heavier upfront expense.

A second approach is to trust more on the intuition and start with more focused, smaller opportunities, and roll them out over enough time to determine if they can work. If not, move to the next idea and do the same. The greater one’s understanding or intuition, the more likely the right ideas will be first on the list. This approach has lower cost implications upfront, allows for applying what was learned but may take longer to find the best opportunities.

As we get more and more dependent on data, the art and intuition necessary to be complete in marketing is becoming rare. We have to be uncomfortable when faced with a lack of information and develop creative ways to kick off the marketing programs while gathering data along the way to better inform the next iteration of our activities.

April 19, 2015
Creating the Right Culture to Maximize Analytics

Digital analytics and more precisely, how a company uses digital analytics is a focus of mine. Over the years I have seen very smart people with access to very sophisticated analytics programs feel paralyzed by their own ignorance. Whether it an inability to measure their own results or the lack of visibility into what others in their organization are doing, they don’t have the confidence to make decisions and take action.

On the flip side there are some very “junior” people making some very wise choices directly as a result of their access and understanding of the impact of their own actions. Information truly is power.

I had the great privilege of traveling from Europe to Asia to run seminars on how to apply digital analytics in day to day operations. I saw first hand how information empowered people, and lack of information stymied them. The key difference was not the tools the companies use but the culture of the companies who used them properly.

Based on experience and observations, with a strong grounding in the content of my seminar, I’ve written a book about digital analytics. Specifically what a company needs to do to implement a culture of analytics.

Digital Analytics. The Culture of Insights and Actions.

The book is not a long book, but I do think is can be helpful in guiding individuals to affect change within their organization. It is not about any specific analytics program or application. Rather I focus on the human aspect of analytics and making the application of analytics ‘real.’ I firmly believe that the greatest asset of any company is the group of people who show up everyday and want to make a difference. All they need is the right set of tools. Digital analytics is one of those tools.

April 11, 2015
eWOM : What durable goods marketers need to do about it

WOM, word of mouth has long been a powerful force in the making (and breaking) of products and companies. As the force has moved online to become known as eWOM marketers have struggled to understand the dynamic it plays in the material affect on their sales. A culprit in perpetuating this struggle is the monolithic view of social media that serves as the proxy for eWOM among many.

“A Meta-Analysis of Electronic Word-of-Mouth Elasticity” in The March 2015 Journal of Marketing, provides a great deal of insights into the phenomena of eWOM. As we contemplate the results, there are some things we could derive based on our experience with current customers, our sales process and our ongoing dialogue within the industry. In other words, common sense is finally backed up by analysis.

Durability and Trialability are two key attributes for the impact of social media. As the former increases and the latter decreases, the need for deep information from credible sources becomes increasingly important. If the consumers keep the item for a long time and they don’t have the ability to try it before they buy it, they dig deep into the available resources.

A key component of the information they want is expert in depth analysis. Reviews that say “Great Car! I loved it.” are not very helpful. The consumers are seeking information from authoritative sources, experts or consumers who express details about their experience.

The research efforts of the consumers during the purchase process are intended to mitigate knowledge risk. The more costly the items, the more valuable the incremental knowledge becomes. Thus, consumers will spend a great deal of time researching durable goods.

The implications for marketers extend to the pre and post purchase with eWOM.

For durable goods, marketers need to identify authoritative third party sources and ensure they have the right / best information. They can’t be bought, but they can be educated. Providing one “authority” with access and a “trial” with the product can directly influence thousands of potential buyers. Marketers need to identify the authorities in their area, monitor them and educate them and their audiences. Of course, this assumes a quality product and service to start with.

Post sales support needs to be strong and obvious. Reviews, publicly requested service inquiries (twitter “help line” for example) need fast and valuable responses. Private requests need equal attention to ensure they do not become public issues.

For durable goods, marketing resources need to be prioritized to mitigate knowledge risk for potential buyers. While cute social games, contests and share-fests are fun and can build communities, this activity should be second to building the experts’ product familiarity, in depth reviews and clear post purchase support. It is not the number of mentions that count, but the value those mentions have to potential buyers.

March 29, 2015
Facebook seeks to prove ad and sales connection

The WSJ article on Facebook’s sales lift research is a new bow on an old, old package. Using post impressions studies to calculate the lift in sales derived from advertising was being used over 25 years ago.

While I applaud the continued push to connect online ad expenditures to off-line results, articles like this in the WSJ make it seem like digital marketers haven’t been thinking about this for decades. Now that Facebook is now putting money behind methodologies that have been around for well over 30 years, it is being treated as some kind of new concept. Keep on studying, but lets not kid ourselves, this is old school research applied to ‘new’ media (I hesitate to call internet advertising new anymore.)

March 23, 2015
IBM: Mobile app security is virtually non-existant

Apps are so shiny we can’t see the problems they (and we) face. I wrote before about the reliability of location based technology and the issues apps have in accurately locating users. This is an issue for advertisers who rely on location targeting. For consumers these poorly performing apps can be frustrating.

But if the report by IBM and Ponemon on app security is an indication, users have a great deal more to be concerned about than being misplaced by apps.

Apps can hold or be a pathway to sensitive data. The study estimates that 11.6 million phones were infected at any given time by malware last year, putting 1 billion personal data records at risk.

The primary cause of the breach, little or literally no mobile app security screening by the app developers. This includes fortune 500 companies. Its is not just the independent developer out there, it is the large companies whom we tend to trust (naive though its proven to be).

Some interesting facts as seen in IBM’s info-graphics (available here on flickr). Note how 40% have no budget allocated to app security. Many of these companies are providing the apps to their customers. This lack of attention to app security speaks volumes about the companies concern for their own customers.

IBM – 40% don’t scan code

33% never test apps for security.

50% have no budget for testing security of apps

1 billion personal data records compromised

March 21, 2015