For the last week, I’ve been humbled by the flu. I’m honestly not sure what was worse, having the flu or subjecting myself to 5 days of cable TV while I lay on the couch. (I feel very close to Bob Villa now.)
While I sat on couch, cheering my white blood cells on, I did a search for "flu symptoms." I noticed a common search problem—a case of one advertiser knowing who they are talking to and others who are clearly not sure.
Search marketing like other forms of marketing, need to focus on "the who." Not the stellar British rock band of the 60s and 70s, but those who are searching. You must know who you are talking to in order for the brand message to break through the clutter. The keywords you bid on tell you "the who" and what their intent is.
This PPC ad is perfect.
It’s to the point and addresses exactly what anyone searching for information on flu symptoms needs.
Tylenol, on the other hand, is wasting money (and a consumer’s time) because they don’t know who they are talking to.
Simply, I don’t have a "common cold," I have the flu. Based on my search—flu symptoms—what
I want is pretty clear. Their PPC ad does not begin to address my intent for searching.
Next, I did a search for "flu treatments" and found the same issue. A few very good PPC ads that spoke to and leads to information about how to treat the flu. But again, Tylenol misses:
Once again, I’m not trying to treat a cold. I’m dealing with nausea, a flu symptom not a cold symptom. But, alas, Tylenol is not alone. Vicks also uses off-target copy.
PPC ads must address the intent of the searcher in order to convince them that your site has information they can use. That is why a consumer will click. For some keywords, this can be tricky to judge. Multiple ads can help you test your way into figuring out what ads speak to the consumer the best.
But in some cases, such as with flu symptoms and treatment, the intent is clear. And failing to address the consumer’s need will send them clicking somewhere else.
Tagged as:
adwords,
Pay-Per-Click,
ppc,
Search,
SEM,
tylenol
This week, 1-800-Contacts sued LensWorld for allegedly purchasing branded terms in order to show LensWorld PPC ads when users are searching 1-800-Contacts. (MediaPost reports.) The key here is one company buying the branded terms of another company.
This is not the first lawsuit of its type. The question is around if it is infringement of any sort. Currently, engines allow advertisers to buy competitive brand terms if the competitors name is not used in the actual ad copy. Complaints to engines over this are handled on a case-by-case basis.
The main problem I see with a competitor buying the branded terms of another competitor is that it drives up the cost for that brand name. Simply, you could end up paying a high pay-per-click rate for your own name if your competitor purchased your brand name as well. (Many people I know in the industry follow an unwritten rule not to buy competitor brand names, often for fear of retribution on their own
brand name.)
This is a problem that is very hard to solve, and sadly, will probably have to be sorted out in the court room. Is it Google or Yahoo’s job to protect intellectual property? I say no, but engines constantly find themselves in the middle of this issue.
Honestly, it’s not much different than two advertisers appearing on the same page of a magazine. It is up the professionals that create the ad to distinguish it among the competitors.
Besides, every company should rank highly in organic listings for their own branded terms. If a company can not stand out on a search results page for their own branded terms, they have much larger issues than a competitors bid price.
Tagged as:
bid,
brand,
lawsuit,
Pay-Per-Click,
price,
Search,
Search Engine Marketing,
SEM,
SEO,
terms
This time of year is very exciting for my family. We have a small pond in our backyard and when spring arrives, it comes alive with activity. The fish come out of hibernation, birds gather to bathe and drink, and my kids look for new tadpoles. My six year old started asking a lot of questions about tadpoles, so we hit the web to search for information and pictures of the frog life cycle.
When looking for what types of food tadpoles eat, I noticed the PPC ads.
Wow, Target sells everything! They even have tadpole food. Or, they don’t, which is what I found when I clicked the link to their landing page.
Target could have become part of my son’s exciting adventure into tadpole care. With their ad they built an expectation, then failed to deliver. Leaving me, the consumer, and a 6-year old boy, frustrated with their
brand.
Why would Target place such this PPC ad? Probably sloppy set up from their search vendor. When you get into SEM—or any advertising for that matter—you have to deliver upon the expectation you build. Not meeting those expectations will cost you customers.
Tagged as:
ppc,
Search,
Search Engine Marketing,
SEM,
target
I love Spring Hill Nursery. I’ve been getting their catalog for years and frequently order from them. Yesterday they emailed me to let them know about their Earth Day sale.
They obviously took time to plan the sale and get the email together to send out. Yet Spring Hill did not reflect their sale messaging in the PPC banner they have for their own name. That would be a perfect place to also announce the Earth Day sale, and connect it right to their site.
I’m am not knocking email in any way, but I do get tons of it each day – and that’s just the email that I want. In other words, I could have missed the Spring Hill email. As a brand, you have to be ready to consistently message to your customers in multiple marketing channels. You may never know in which channel a consumer will see and react to first.
Tagged as:
Search,
Search Engine Marketing,
SEM
Last Friday, as I was getting ready to head home for the weekend, a Barnes & Noble email jumped into my inbox. It was about a book just covered on Oprah that afternoon called Scam Proof Your Life. Kudos for the up-to-the-second relevance of the email.
Barnes & Noble obviously knew it was going to be featured today on Oprah. The email was designed in advance and waiting for the show to air. So I ask, why did they not also launch PPC banners in tandum? They could have also been prepared in advance and set to launch at a specific time of day. Barnes & Noble missed a chance to be truly effective in leveraging the influence of trigger points.
Trigger points are the influencers that drive people to a search engine to find information. Having a good search strategy also requires an understanding of how and why people use engines.
Trigger points happen all the time – everyday – and if you recognize them as they happen, your brand can leverage search just as people are arriving at engines to begin their information quest.
Tagged as:
Search,
SEM
Search is the most powerful way to drive traffic to sites, outshining email, banners, and other forms of online advertising. Search is also effective at driving foot traffic to brick & mortar stores. Many people conduct research online—starting at a search engine—for a product they would rather buy, or end up buying, in-store. But there is more to connecting the two beyond just providing your street address to
online customers.
I developed a process that I call the Search-to-Store Experience. It is a process that enables a consumers that enters the buying funnel at a search engines to easily complete the process in a brick and mortar store. (The issue of tracking that process from start-to-finish via metrics to determine ROI is also important. Maybe I’ll discuss that side in later posts.)
The focus of the Search-to-Store Experience is to connect the two channels more seamlessly and in a way that feels natural to a searcher. It is most valuable to the consumer that begins by conducting a search then switches channels to complete the sale in store. The entire process has to feel like a natural progression to the consumer.
Here are some tips in creating your own Search-to-Store Experience.
Make Usual connections between channels.
Investing in a SEM campaign to help sell blue widgets? Then have a blue widget display near the front entrance of the store. When the person that started with an online search walks in, they make the instant "there it is" connection. They’ll put the blue widget right in their basket.
Contextualize messaging.
As the consumer moves along the search channel (from search, to PPC ad or organic listing, to a landing page) the messaging needs to mature with that progression. Don’t repeat the same thing at each step, but rather go a level deeper. Reinforce, but open the messaging to more detail or product features. The landing page not only needs to have a picture of the product but a full description, the stores that are near them, and
a printable coupon to redeem in store.
Uniform branding.
Brand messaging can easily change as it is applied in different marketing channels. Messaging in print ads need to match messaging on a web site. But importantly, messaging carried out in a search engine, either via PPC ad copy or meta descriptions in organic listings, needs to also match your brand messaging. The continuity of brand messaging is key is the different channels feeling unified to the consumer.
Connect other business areas.
If other areas of your business are connected, regardless of channel, a consumer will use the channel most convenient for them at the time. Using different doorways to your brand will feel natural. And if the
branding is uniform, the consumer won’t feel lost. Allowing online purchased to be returned in-store, loyalty programs and promotions to be redeemed in-store, online or over the phone. This makes any channel
switches your consumers make feel like a comfortable part of doing business with your brand.
Tagged as:
brick,
channels,
Marketing,
mortar,
Search,
SEM,
SEO,
store,
traffic
