Bing Gets Creative: Testing Ad Placement with adCenter

Recently Microsoft’s Bing has confirmed that they are running tests by showing Ads via Microsoft adCenter intertwined with Organic Results. Though there are some screen shots out there, I have not had the opportunity to see ads within Organic Search Results. Another change that I have noticed is the extra benefit of being the number 1 or 2 ad in the overall search results. In addition to being listed at the top, in those top 2 ad spots, the top 2 ads are also shown at the bottom of the first page adding more compelling value.

I’m glad to see that Microsoft adCenter is testing and trying to improve their services. As a PPC advertiser, who is adCenter Certified, I would now like to know if my ads are getting clicks while at the top of the page, the bottom of the page, or somewhere in between. I hope they are measuring this to help educate us all on where the best placement is and whether it is beneficial to have an ad in the middle of Organic Results. Only time can tell if this will be something that Bing will use in the near or distant future, but my guess is we’ll see some variation sooner rather than later.

The Next Step In Social

For some strange reason, there are still those who believe social media is just a fad, but more people have realized that social media is here to stay. Regardless of the side your on, you should still be informed of what’s to come. In this article I will cover a few things to expect in the future of social media.

1. I foresee companies deciding to build social e-commerce stores on social sites, like Facebook. With a social platform like Facebook that has 700+ million users, it’s hard to believe that companies won’t try to capitalize on that further. Why not keep the prospective customers in one place where they can shop and socialize.
2. The physical world and digital world will become more connected. With the increase in smart-phone and tablet users, 1 in 2 people by December 2011, it becomes easier to stay connected. Meanwhile, app developers create more and more ways to connect the two worlds with the tap of a button.
3. There will come a time when data will find you instead of the other way around. With all of the companies we allow to collect data on the who, what, when, where, why and how we do things online, what we are interested in will begin popping up once we log on, without even searching for it.
4. SEO & Social SEO will become more important as time goes on to prevent an information overload. Due the immense amount of information that will be coming in, not only the standard info that’s on the internet, but also social info that increases every day, today’s search engines will have to adapt. This means that we will see new search engines to search only social info, starting the Social Search Revolution.
5. Pay-Per-Share will become more common. With so many people sharing on a normal basis why not generate money from it. Twitter has begun the wave and I feel many will follow suit with their own variations of pay-per-share programs in order to increase profits.

Internal Site Search Usage: Gateway into the Visitor’s Mind

The main goal of virtually every single marketing strategy is to understand what the target market wants. Whether your particular strategy involves generating more leads or increasing sales, it is common marketing knowledge that you must know what your customer is looking for. In the wide world of web design, internet marketing, and web analytics, there are many avenues of data and insights that can lead to more targeted marketing.

In particular, internal site search is a very important aspect of your website that should be tracked and analyzed carefully. If your website supports this functionality, visitors can use it to find specific products, services, or other pages on your site quickly and easily. Just as monitoring the top-performing keywords and phrases visitors used to find your website organically on search engines is very important, paying close attention to how your visitors search your internal site is also crucial. It can raise the following questions:

What are visitors searching for the most?

Are they able to find what they’re looking for? If not, is it a product or service you can carry or offer in the future?

Are visitors searching for pages more than using the actual navigation menu?

Paying attention to the internal site search report for your website can yield some interesting results you may not have anticipated before. It may indicate that people are looking for products or services you don’t currently offer. It could also point out detrimental holes into the structure, navigation, and optimization of your website that could negatively affect conversion rates. Monitoring this aspect of your website can help streamline your overall web presence and internet marketing approach, as well as provide a look into the minds of your visitors.

Google AdWords' New Targeting Options

Google AdWords recently eliminated the polygon (custom shape) targeting system, and replaced it with a simpler pin point with radius method. Although this method is easier to set-up and visualize, it may not be as precise. However, select exact city location with a radius can still be very effect and efficient. Your options are either to individual select the cities, or points, that you want to target and set appropriate radius, or to select a central point and set the radius high enough to include all the desires points. Whichever option better fits your PPC management targeting strategy, be sure to implement it by the end of 2011, at which time Google will automatically change your polygon targeting into a set point with a radius. An Example of an alternative targeting strategy is pictured below - if more careful one care make it an even closer match.

Old Polygon Targeting New Alternative Targeting

Has Your Company Forgotten the Web Analytics Data Capturing Basics?

We did some web analytics consulting for a Fortune 500 company recently. This case was very unique! The company had numerous global websites and campaigns, but lacked a standard web analytics solution, standard profile configuration, dedicated data collection team, data validation process, and avenues of communication between IT and the rest of the business. “Web Analytics capabilities”…are you really serious?

We would highly recommend that you solidify these areas before working on web analytics capabilities. Don’t even talk about data collection methodologies until you have the resources (human) in place to develop universal and standard processes. With good talent and proper documentation, you should be able to identify the gap and resolve any issues.

Google's New Cost Per Lead Format

Google is currently testing search and display versions of a cost-per-lead ad format. If launched, this new format could be beneficial for business-to-business advertisers. The new format would allow users to request to have an advertiser contact them either through a phone call or an email. Looks like Google and Google AdWords have identified another opportunity to generate revenue. At the same time, provide advertisers with a new method to engage with customers via the internet. Stay tuned for more information.

Web Analytics: Usage Analysis Leads to Improved Customer Relations

Knowing how your target audience uses your website is integral to increasing visitor conversions and improving customer relations. Various retail stores around the world spend millions of dollars on researching how their customers browse their brick and mortar stores. They use this data to arrange the store in the most efficient manner, even engaging in testing to increase purchases by the customer.

Your internet marketing campaign should adopt a similar approach. Focusing on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) within your web analytics solution can provide insights into how your target audience is using the website. The KPIs can bring troublesome drop-off points within your goal conversion funnels to your attention so you can make the required changes to the design of the page or its content to increase conversions. Perhaps certain landing pages have a consistently high bounce rate. Or perhaps the pageviews-per-visit or average time on site are down. This could indicate that the content on the page is not relevant or targeted enough for the consumer.

Customer relations are not only managed in brick and mortar stores, over the phone, or in emails. Implementing web analytics into your internet marketing approach can provide an integral avenue of improvement to customer relations and conversion rate.