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

I like Target Marketing Magazine’s research summary overviewing the growth factors in SEM, SEO, online advertising (a.k.a., Pay-Per-Click) and Email Marketing which are among the listed 16 online marketing trends.

More than 80% of marketers are using paid search and SEO and plan to expand search into more segments. As consumers search more online, Google’s AdWord inventory continues to grow.  All music to marketers’ ears as you expand your paid search and SEO efforts. 

Online advertising, “performance-based” media buys and integrated email marketing are also slated for substantial growth through 2014.

I asked Joe Ford, our strategic partner from NetVantage Marketing, to pull together a few of the basic things you need to think about.  He actually came up with several items for you to evaluate.  Here are Joe’s thoughts:

Like any marketing initiative, it is always important that your online marketing campaign get off to a good start. The pre-launch work that goes into a campaign can pay large dividends, and it can also save a lot money and headaches in the long run.

The following is a set of questions that can serve as a checklist when you’re looking to get a paid search campaign off the ground.  These are broad questions, in many cases you will want to dig deeper to properly investigate the value points of each area depending on the campaign objectives. You should be getting asked similar questions by your online marketing firm, or asking yourself these questions if managing your campaigns in-house.

1. What is the overall background and mission of the company?

2. What are the goals of your online campaign in relation to:

a. Brand positioning

b. Building awareness

c. Increasing leads

d. Increasing revenue via direct sales/ecommerce

e. Are there any offline/traditional campaign efforts that should be coordinated with the paid search campaign?

3. Has there been past work done in the online marketing arena?  If so, what were the metrics for success, and is there data that we can use to investigate?

4. Has there been web analytics in place to detail the performance of the current website?

5. How long has the website been in its current state? If there has been current changes, was the results tracked through web analytics?

6. Is there a greater emphasis on certain products or services than  others? Should we be marketing and driving traffic to certain products and services that are better sellers or represent higher margin?

7. What is the target audience profile, and what are the different personas throughout the buying cycle (this can have a profound effect on keyword selection)?  Are there any new audiences that we are trying to target with this campaign?

8. Either from current web traffic reports, or from a qualitative business standpoint, what are the keywords that your target audiences are utilizing to find your site?

9. What are the initial keywords that you feel you want to be ranked highly on for your business?

10. Are there any online channels that you deem necessary to be placed on?

11. What is the testing strategy?  What variables will be evaluated, and what is the cause/effect frequency that you or your firm has in place.  (This will be especially important early on in your campaign)

These examples represent a basic foundation of questions to gain the right information to form a strong campaign that hits target audiences and meets your online marketing goals. As you can see, there is a combination of qualitative and quantitative information that needs to be gathered. Keep in mind that these initiatives should be treated with the same processes and standards as any marketing campaign you conduct.

As you can imagine, starting a pay per click campaign without answering these above questions can lead to major trouble and a lot of reactive work post campaign launch.  It is important that this foundation is created as comprehensively as possible.  This will allow your testing platform and refinement strategy to have the best chance for success!