1. Small ad groups – tight keyword matches. We are finding lots of success constructing very small ad groups, and using very tight keyword match types around product keywords. I bet in the thousand keywords we have been managing for various clients, we probably only have a dozen purposeful broad match keywords. And we are only using those in short run tests. Doing this has enabled us to write very focused ad copy, especially using keyword matches in our headlines. This has also protected us from displaying our ads in poor search queries. I like to call it reducing our keyword risk exposure. Yes – impressions and clicks may drop – but if done right cost should decrease and revenue should increase (last time I asked, clients like this). In order to be sure we are staying on top of query trends, we actively use the See Search Query Tool to mine for negative keyword opportunities, as well as any broader variations we may be missing. When using matching we also keep a close eye on impressions share per ad group to ensure we are on the mark with budget, bid, and quality. We most frequently use phrase and exact match types with success. If we think we are losing impressions share, we will widen out to both modified broad and broad keywords.

2. Ad copy tests. You always hear about testing in paid search. It isn’t just important – it is everything! We are constantly trying to find ways to test ad copy to maximize conversions. Often times search advertisers can get wrapped up into measuring conversions by keyword. While good, I think it is also important to measure how specific ads convert. There can be some major discoveries in looking at this data. Click through rate is important, but look at how your ads converted against each other as well. For example, was it better to use “Quality Products”, or “Lowest Prices”? We also do a lot of testing of using price within our ads. There is no across the board answer here – in some cases it worked – in other cases in bombed. That is why testing ad copy is important.

3. Ad extensions. I think ad extensions have been an extremely important development for paid search. Product extensions have greatly enhanced conversions for many clients. We are seeing product listing ads vastly outperform normal text ads for conversions in many cases. Sitelinks extensions have increased our click through rates over 35% in some cases. An important tactic to keep in mind is the usage of calls to action within your Sitelinks – such as Sale, Best Deal, and Limited Time Only. Phone extensions have given us another great lead and buy generation touch point for our clients to interact with buyers for less. We also use Google call forwarding for the $1.00 cost per call option, and to provide our clients with a call report. (Location extensions are important as well – if you have a local geographic footprint with your e-commerce site)

4. Landing pages and site layout. Beyond AdWords tactics – it still is a gigantic factor to work with the sites that you are driving traffic to. We always use the analogy – don’t drive people on nice roads to shacks in the woods – drive them on nice roads to mansions that they can explore and use. It is important to match query intent to content. If a user searches for black leather shoes – don’t bring them to the men’s shoes page – bring them to the black leather shoes page. Or, at least test it! When working with campaigns, we feel it is important to constantly be in communication with our clients on landing page tests and tweaks to maximize conversion. The best AdWords campaigns depend on sites that are positioned to convert. You still need to address product layout, content packages, visuals, and of course pricing. If you are not priced competitively, then any e-commerce campaign is going to suffer with conversions percentage.

That is an overview of what has worked in our world for e-commerce. Yes – there is a lot more to it. I didn’t cover bidding, conversion optimizer, Enhanced CPC, KPIs in the new Google Analytics, etc, but these are the high points for now. What’s been most effective lately in e-commerce for your site, leave a comment below.

Joe Ford: Managing Partner at Netvantage Marketing

About Joe:

Joe Ford is a Managing Partner at Netvantage Marketing. In addition to overseeing day to day business operations of Netvantage, he directs paid search strategy for over 14 paid search clients. Ford is on the Lansing Chamber Board of Directors, and the Executive Board of the Capital Area IT Council.

Over the past couple of years, many marketers have been led to believe that email prospecting is as simple as renting an email list and sending your message.   However, it isn’t quite that simple.   From our significant experience in email prospecting, we have found that one of the key factors that drive success in prospecting is the type of email source you are utilizing.  This shouldn’t be a surprise given all of our experience in direct marketing, where it is stated that 40% of your success is due to the list source.  

We think “the list factor” is even more significant in email prospecting.  A key factor in this arena is whether the list source is a Compiled Email or Specialty Email property:

• Compiled Lists:  There are hundreds of companies that have what we call “compiled email lists”.  These lists sources are typically put together by email appending of postal lists from many sources.  While these list sources generally have targeting capabilities (demographics, etc.), the overall performance of compiled lists has continued to decline.
• From our perspective, we do not develop prospecting solutions that involve compiled emails.  It would be great if we could find solutions that work in this area, as they often provide excellent coverage and are very inexpensive.   However, in our significant testing of multiple compiled sources, we have not found any sources that have delivered the performance we needed for the clients we serve.
• Specialty Lists:  In the case of Specialty Lists, our List Strategy Team is specifically looking to identify Specialty List Properties that align with the clients marketing sector.   For example, if a client is looking to recruit dentists, we would look for email list sources that specialize in the Dental Industry. 
• In general, when a prospecting email is sent via a Specialty List source, the email comes from the source itself (with a header and footer specifically referencing the Specialty List Property by name).   This is not the case in Compiled List approaches.  While these list sources will be more expensive than compiled sources, from our experience, the sources are more relevant, more likely to make it to the inbox and more likely to generate the ROI you need. 

 Key factors for email prospecting success should include the following:

• Test:   Develop a Testing Plan to evaluate multiple Specialty Sources within your client’s marketing sector.   Test different types of sources … from associations, to publications, to buyer files.
• Integrate:  Once Champions from your Test Plan have been identified, develop integrated direct mail and email tests.  We (as well as a ton of DMA references) have seen significant performance lift in this area.
• Optimize:   Let performance guide you to optimizing your email prospecting list strategy based on results.

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Inc. magazine ranked ICS on their 5000 fastest growth companies list for the fifth year in a row! 

As I’m working on this blog post, I’m also putting the finishing touches on our sixth Inc. application for 2012. 

I started digging into our financials and analyzing the “why” behind our remarkable growth and some interesting stats came to light – not to mention a new coding system for tracking our business. 

These 2007-2010 stats not only confirmed what we knew all along, but also really put it all into concrete, mind-boggling numbers. 

The 2010 segment breakdown of our total business looked like this: 

• Traditional:  72.5%
• Digital:  20%
• Technology:  7.5% 

Now, this is where it gets really interesting.  Our growth by segment comes out as… 

• Traditional:  3%
• Digital & Technology:  270%! 

We spotted these areas as major marketing trends several years back and planned our line-up accordingly.  We knew this was really growing, but 270% growth had me surprised!

Let me clarify my terms a little here… when I’m talking about “digital”, I’m referring to all digital marketing:  email, search engine optimization/search engine marketing, pay-per-click, triggered communications, social, etc.  “Technology” refers to investments in IT staff and advanced data warehousing that drives CRM programs for our clients.

Our largest growth by product shakes-out as… 

• Email:  319%
• SEO/PPC:  100%
• Development (as in data warehousing):  80%
• Direct Mail Production:  40% 

Besides the impressive growth percentages in these product areas, some of you might be a little surprised to see such growth in mail.  This growth is directly tied-to our clients seeing a proven performance boost when they integrate their digital and traditional channels in a multi-channel strategy. 

To put our growth in a broader context, here’s where we stand among others in our industry who also made the 2011 list.  Ken covered this in an interview with InTouch a while back, but here’s a quick recap:

Out of the 124 Michigan companies to make the list, Inc. ranked ICS as 95^th and published the company’s three-year growth rate at 29%.  Ten of the Michigan companies were listed in the advertising and marketing sector, among which ICS ranked eighth. 

It was fun to compare our movement on the list by looking at the stats in an older blog post about our fourth year on the Inc. list.  It’s been onward and upward on list for five years now. 

I hope to be posting an announcement this summer on a six-peat!  With these stats, I’m feeling pretty confident. It will also be interesting to see how that pie chart shifts for 2012!

Are you experiencing this same digital shift in your marketing budgets and plans for 2012? 

What do you see as your greatest marketing opportunities this year?

Please post a comment. I’d like to hear your thoughts and compare notes on this integrated, digital marketing front!  

Martin Jerick, Chairman/Senior Vice President

While there are a lot of solid solutions available today, I will take our MarketSmart Insight Consumer profile as an example.   Priced at less than $1,000, you can profile your customer data against over 20 key consumer demographics / psychographics.  The profile also creates a penetration index for each element … comparing your customer base to a random population sample. 

While it is hard to imagine that such a small investment can make an impact, we have proven the value here time-and-time again.  An additional benefit is that typically you will find that this investment will also have a shelf-life of two to three years.  

Increased customer insight can improve your targeted marketing performance in the following areas: 

• Reveal key areas of marketing opportunity:  High penetration index areas can be excellent marketing sectors to target
• Make your offer / creative more relevant:  By gaining a clearer picture of what your customers look like (all too many times clients think they know, but are incorrect), you can align your marketing to be more relevant and effective.
• Improve targeting performance:  Once again, high penetration index areas can provide extremely valuable intelligence for targeting purposes.   For example, set up some tests for your next prospecting campaign that target based on your strongest index areas.  

I thought the blog post was an excellent and succinct overview of the path we have taken many clients down.  With today’s technology, you don’t have to be a multi-million dollar organization to take steps in this direction.   Give us a call if we can provide some advice in this area for your organization.

• §  Data is King:  OK, I know this isn’t a revelation, but I am continued to be amazed at how few marketers have really thought through how this impacts their marketing efforts.
• §  A recent IDC study found that digital information is doubling every two years.   This is not only true about the data you keep on your customers, it is also true on prospects we are looking for.   No longer can we assume that the best and most relevant prospecting sources are from brand name compiled lists.   Often, the best prospecting sources are from new internet-based sources that may not have even been around a few years ago.  

How has increased data insight changed your marketing strategies?  2012 Action Item:   Develop performance-based data source testing plans for your recruitment efforts.   

Marketing Technology – Increasing capabilities while decreasing costs:   Today’s marketing technology brings capability to the small and medium-sized companies that could only be afforded by the big companies 5 years ago.   Significant advances have been made in key areas:

• §  Marketing Automation / Triggered Email:  New toolsdrive industry-best performance in multi-channel lead management … and is “always on”. 
• §  Real Time Metrics:  You don’t have to wait to evaluate marketing performance.   Know now!
• §  Multi-channel Marketing Data Warehouses:  Increase your marketing success through increased customer Intelligence.   Good news; Today’s technology doesn’t make this a multi-million dollar effort.  

Where does your company stand in leveraging today’s capabilities?  2012 Action Item:   Audit where you are at with your technology position.   Dedicate time to explore options in weak areas.

Multi-channel Integration increases your marketing performance:   However, smart approaches in this area have to be thought through and “performance-based”.

How are you using Integrated Marketing in your marketing plans for customer and prospect lead generation?   2012 Action Item:   Evaluate how your marketing plans leverage Integrated Marketing.   Develop testing strategies in this area and compare results to your current marketing efforts.

If you Google the term, you find different results ranging from company names, book titles to people who attempt to define it… including Biz Stone, Co-Founder of Twitter, who says what it means to him in more than 140 characters.

At this year’s DMA Conference in Boston, Stone was one of the Keynote Speakers. His presentation, titled: Open, Informed & Engaged: A Changing Communication Landscape, covered what he believes is the “Meaningful Market.”

In a time when consumers’ expectations are higher than ever before, it is important for brands and companies to be human. 

This means “Dropping the PR shield,” as Stone noted, and using social media to interact with consumers. The Meaningful Market happens when you invite consumers to be a part of a conversation by asking them what they want to see or hear, creating calls-to-action and deepening the relationship that a consumer has with a brand or company online.

This also involves listening in social media networks.  Find out who is talking about your brand, or just as importantly your brand’s competitors, and reach out to them.

Create two-way communication. Social media isn’t just a way to reach out to more consumers.  It’s also a way for more consumers to reach you. In the Meaningful Market, the terms B2B or B2C Marketing are irrelevant.

We are entering the age of B↔B and B↔C Marketing. Because in the end, the Meaningful Market is all about being thoughtful, meaningful and creating a unique experience for your consumer.

Check out Stone’s entire speech and the Q&A afterwards, or jump to the 10:30 mark to hear Stone talk about the Meaningful Market.

What an inspiration to reinvigorate our own blog and our LinkedIn page!  Please share your thoughts with us, so we can make our conversation more meaningful to you and your business.

Tell us what’s important to you and what challenges you’re facing.  Tell us what you need to know to make your marketing job easier and more profitable. 

We can even give you examples – via the blog and INTouch, our quarterly newsletter – of how to integrate and apply traditional and digital marketing tools. 

When we hit on something meaningful to you, share it with a friend.  No matter how experienced, every marketer could use a little help in growing their business!

I’m back from my West Coast trip spent visiting clients in LA and, of course, attending the DMA 2010 in San Francisco.  

For me, the biggest take-away from this year’s conference was a big affirmation that ICS is on the right track with our product/service mix and integration of online and offline marketing tools… and that we’re probably leading the crowd when it comes to integration. 

It seems to me everyone agreed that integrating your online marketing and traditional marketing is critical to growing your business.  But, not everyone had a clear understanding of HOW to do it – especially when it came to social media. 

The most insightful thing I heard presented on social media was this:  “Think of social media as a friend.  If you can’t communicate back and forth as you would with a friend, then social media is not for you.” 

Now don’t get me wrong.  I think social media has its place in our marketing toolkits, but the successful marketer will be selective on where and how to use this latest, shiny new tool. 

In fact, we’ve had great results in integrating social media as one online element (in conjunction with paid search that is driven by keywords and is geo-targeted and targeted online advertising).  We’ve combined these online tools with offline tools to target qualified prospects and motivate them to register online for automotive ride and drive events.  Results have been excellent. 

So, I’m just saying that social media makes sense in some situations, but not in all… and maybe all of this attention to the new shiny tool is a bit out of proportion with the real-world.

My advice:  Stay on the forefront.  Know the latest, cutting-edge tools available to you.  Clearly understand your customers, potential customers and your business challenges.  Then, decide which online and offline tools within an integrated strategy make sense for you.

We’re even growing within the automotive sector.  In fact, I’m on my way to an auto OEM client meeting right now relating to large-scale, nationwide event marketing programs. 

Toward the end of the news release, Ken talks about how we’re integrating various marketing tools to create our new approach to event marketing which increases sales while reducing cost and complexity of these programs .  (More details to come in the future, so stay tuned to my blog.)

This news release will go out this week to select media, plus seperate big “thank you” to our team.  So, if you see any coverage on ICS in the news in coming weeks, let me know!  And if you’re a client or team member reading this post, thanks for getting us on the list yet again.  We could not have done this without you!

Inc. Magazine Names ICS as One of the Fastest-Growing Companies – 4 Years Running

Lansing, MI – September 30, 2010 – Inc. magazine named ICS Marketing Support Services on its 5000 Growth Companies List of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies for the fourth year-in-a-row.    

 “Fast growth at any time is a big achievement; fast growth during the past few years is just short of miraculous,” said Inc. editor Jane Berentson.

 Out of the 139 Michigan companies to make the list, Inc. ranked ICS as 129^th and published the company’s three-year growth rate at 6%.  Nine of the Michigan companies were listed in the advertising and marketing sector, among which ICS ranked eighth. 

 To qualify, companies must be U.S.-based, privately held and independent – not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies – as of December 31, 2009, and have had at least $80,000 in revenue in 2006 and $2 million in 2009.

 Ken Orr, President of ICS Marketing Support Services, gives four reasons why ICS has consistently grown during a down economy – and especially in Michigan, one of the hardest-hit states.  

 A Diversified Product and Service Offering – Several Eggs in Several Baskets
“Our clients are marketing agencies, as well as marketers from many industries.  ICS saw changes coming in the marketing world, such as the need for integrating data, direct marketing, email, paid search, mobile messaging and other marketing tools.  We successfully capitalized on this trend because of the range and type of products and services we offer.”
 

Clients Changed The Way They Do Business – And ICS Was Ready
“Clients have streamlined their operations – including marketing – and want streamlined solutions to their business challenges.  They also want direct relationships with those creating the solution and making it happen in the real world.  Consequently, we’re included earlier in the process – even as a partner to large agencies – to develop the up-front strategy.  This new approach drives down costs, time and complexity while making sure that every marketing dollar that the client spends truly impacts the bottom line.”        

The Marketing World Keeps Changing, But Data Remains King
“While the Internet and mobile devices are giving marketers new, exciting ways to reach prospects, data is still at the heart of all great marketing.  So, it’s not just our integrated approach and diverse offerings.  It’s also our access to the best data and our expertise in analytics that keeps ICS on Inc. magazine’s list.”   

Future Growth:  Internet Marketing, Mobile Messaging and Bundling the Right Pieces Together
“We see SEM (Search Engine Marketing), Mobile Messaging, Paid Search and so on as evolving tools in our offering mix.  We’re also careful about how we apply new marketing tools.  For example, Mobile Messaging is fraught with privacy issues just by the intrusive nature of it.  But, we’ve found select situations where it’s an effective tool to build customer loyalty for our clients. 

“So while we work hard to keep our products and services cutting-edge, we’re also smart about how we bundle them to meet each client’s needs.  For example, Event Marketing is a perfect scenario where we’re bundling our services in data, paid search, online registration portals, email, direct mail and Web analytics.  It’s the way we’re bundling these services that makes it a total game changer.”

How effective is your Online Search Marketing Campaign?  

You’ve done the front end work: keyword research, website optimization, keyword saturation, ad text, URLs and geo targeting … all aimed at generating qualified sales leads.  

But what about the back end?  How well is your campaign performing?
• Did you set goals and track your performance?
• Do your prospects make it past your landing page? If so, where do they go?
• Are you focused on the right keywords?
• Valuable data is piling up – page views, viewer traffic, click-throughs – but what do you do with it?

Answer these questions and more with Google Analytics.   

Joe will show you how to…
• Create Segments, Set Goals and Track Results
• Perform a Landing Page Analysis
• Track your Traffic and ROI
• “Hack up your data,” put it all together and ensure success!

Here’s the link to register  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/529720752  If you can’t join me on the 26th, then visit our on-demand webinar postings to view this webinar after the live broadcast.  You’ll be glad you did when you see your online search marketing ROI!

If you missed it, here’s our previous webinar on Google AdWords and learning how to launch an online advertising campaign:  http://www.youtube.com/icsMarketingSupport#p/u/0/hL-w8y9iCzs