The How vs. The Why

As far back as I can remember, I've always been a very inquisitive person. I was never content when someone gave me the "what" or even the "why"; I always wanted the "how". I guess it's just in my nature to look beyond the simple observation of the "what" or the causal response from the "why". For me, what's significant is how something happened. An example that is relevant to all of us is the situation the global economy is in. Anyone can tell you that the economy is doing terrible (the "what"); it is also fairly easy to explain "why", in this case being that lending houses were being too nonchalant when giving loans as well as consumers spending beyond their means. Granted, the "why" is a bit more involved as it goes deeper into the situation but the "how" digs even deeper. In this case, the answer would be that government's laissez-faire and lack of regulation allowed lending houses to make too many risky gambles and unfortunately, they lost the majority of those gambles. Yes, I agree that all three of those ("what", "where", "how") pose three separate questions, but the "how" is what gives you the best understanding of the situation.

I mention this because in my line of work, the "how" is the most significant detail. In Search, the "what" is a given and that is that consumers are looking for the most bang for their buck. The Internet gives them a wealth of information and resources to do their due diligence and get the best deal on the product they want. The "why" is a no-brainer: because they want to save money and by comparing prices from multiple retailers, they are doing just that. The "how", that's the Fort Knox of Search. By figuring out how consumers are searching, you are positioning yourself for success.

I've had the privilege to work with people from diverse backgrounds and with that being the case, have been exposed to different demographics. In Australia, consumers are rather indifferent about brand names as opposed to here in America. Let's pick a product to help illustrate this: a 42" lcd tv (I know, my love for electronics is very subtle!). An American male in his 30's would be more likely to search the term "sony 42 inch lcd tv" (or panasonic, samsung, etc.) than his Australian counterpart. The Aussie male would most likely type in just "42 inch lcd tv". The American society has a tendency to be brand conscious as they feel a brand name adds value, whereas Australians are content whether they get a Sony or a Sceptre just as long as they get a good deal on a good product. Search behaviors vary in different parts of the world so it would be ill-advised to use the same tactic across the world for a global campaign.

Back to the "how" of Search. As a Search marketer, you should ask yourself a series of "hows" before rolling out a campaign. Here are a few sample questions:

1. How can I create the most targeted experience so that my potential users will get the best user experience?
2. How can I find out what tactics my users are most receptive to?

Now let me tackle each one of these questions. The first question relates to user experience and how that can be beneficial to your performance. Let's continue to use our American and Aussie male to help illustrate and I'll use Best Buy as my client. Since we mentioned that Americans are more receptive to brand names, I would use ad copy that looks like this when advertising in America:


In Australia, since they are less brand conscious, my ad copy would look like this:
For the American ad copy, I made sure that the brand name was mentioned multiple times to ensure that I do in fact carry what they are looking for: brand name TVs. For the Australian ad copy, my focus shifted. I put more emphasis on the money they would be saving at Best Buy as opposed to the competitors. I also emphasized that although they are going to save money, they shouldn't expect to get a third rate TV, but rather one that is top of the line. Taking note of these kinds of cultural preferences will work wonders for your campaign performance.

Before you start to think that I completely dismiss the "why", let me explain the significance I put on the "why". After establishing the "how" (i.e., how people are searching), I examine the "why". In this case, I have multiple "whys":

1. Why did/didn't the user click on my ad?
2. If the user clicked my ad, why didn't they make the purchase?

There are a multiple of "whys", but I will only concentrate on those two. For the first question, I can observe what it is about the ad that caused the user to click it or not click it. Was my ad well worded? Did I have spelling/grammar mistakes? If I'm seeing that my ads have a horrible click through rate (calculated by clicks divided by impressions, i.e., 100 clicks from 1,000 impressions would mean a 10% click through rate), I should go back, examine and make changes. The beauty of Search is that changes can be made on the fly and are so easy to implement. So if I spot a typo, I can make the change and it should be reflected within five minutes.

Now let's examine the second question. Again, there could be many reasons as to why a purchase wasn't made after a user clicked an ad. Was the user looking for TVs and my landing page took them to toasters? Do I simply not carry that product? If it's the former, I should definitely find a better landing page; if it's the latter, I should pause the keyword. There's no sense in spending money on a keyword which isn't even part of my store's inventory. I just want to mention how important it is to review your keyword list before setting them live. Let me illustrate by again using Best Buy as my client. Let's say I had the keyword "cars" in my keyword list. Since this is a very broad term, I would be getting a lot of bad clicks from those who aren't familiar with what Best Buy is. For example, if someone was looking to buy a car and they clicked my ad and saw that I didn't sell any cars, I just wasted however much that click was. If the click was $1.00 then I wasted $1.00; now imagine if it was 1,000 clicks. Yeah, not a pleasant thought, especially for my client. Although Best Buy does install car systems, they don't sell cars so I should make sure such broad terms aren't in my list.

The way I see it, I view my investigation similar to an autopsy. The "how" would be analogous to the cause of death, which is deemed a priority; the "why" would be the motive (I'm a big CSI geek!). Important to note that this is my approach and I'm not saying this is the only approach, but this is just how I proceed. I hope this has helped shape a different way to approach your Search campaign's performance. As always, feel free to ask whatever questions/concerns you may have.

Cheers.

Search: How to Approach it?

In my previous post, I covered the fundamentals of Search. Here, I'll dive in a bit deeper and shed some insight on some of the tactics I use to create campaigns that produce results.

Like with all things new and unfamiliar, Search can be a bit daunting when you want to roll up your sleeves and get started. Worry not, for I am here to make the process as painless as possible : ) First, let's familiarize ourselves with some of the terminology.

For starters, let's look at the basic account structure. There is a hierarchy which basically consists of this:

Account
Campaign
Ad Group
Keywords

Now let's observe each one further.

To make sense of this structure, let me use a company that we are all familiar with: Amazon. Now that we have a client, this should be a bit clearer.

Since Amazon carries pretty much everything, we'll pick one category to use as our "Account". I'm a tech lover so let's use Electronics as our Account. Now that we have our Account name, the rest should fall into place. For Campaigns, we can use a couple of the different categories within the site; I'll use TVs and Computers for simplicity's sake. So now that we have our two Campaigns, "TVs" and "Computers", we can move on to Ad Groups. Although a hierarchy, it makes sense to actually build out your keyword list first. Google has a Keyword Tool that gives you a list of keywords which you can get by providing a link (i.e., Amazon Electronics) or by providing a list of keywords which the tool will provide additional variations of. So if you type in "tv", it may give "sony tv", "lcd tv", etc. This tool is free so if you are interested in checking it out then give it a stab. After you have your keywords, you can then place them into Ad Groups. My word of advice: have as many Ad Groups as possible (each search engine has its own quota). Why? Because you want your keywords to all be similar so that your Ads (I'll get into that a little later) will be relevant to every keyword. Here are my sample keywords to help illustrate:

lcd tv
sony lcd tv
sony bravia tv
52" sony bravia lcd tv

I would not place ANY of these keywords in the same Ad Group because they are all separate products despite their commonality of being lcd tvs. Here is how I would designate these keywords to Ad Groups.

		Ad Group
lcd tv		lcd tv
sony lcd tv		lcd tv - sony
sony bravia tv		lcd tv - sony - bravia
52" sony bravia lcd tv		lcd tv - sony - bravia - 52

This way, you can make the most targeted Ad Copy (I'll explain why that's important in a future post). I want to also clarify that I wouldn't put only one keyword per Ad Group; I would put concatenations of those terms in those Ad Groups. For example, in the "lcd tv" Ad Group, I'd also throw in keywords like "buy lcd tv", "lcd tv deals", etc; I would also use the same method for the other ad groups. Regarding Ads, keep in mind that they are on the Ad Group level and not the Keyword level (except on Ask.com). Therefore, if you have 1,000 Ad Groups, you need at least 1,000 Ads. Don't let that number frighten you as creating ads is a simple task once you master a few Excel tricks. Here is an example of what one of the ads would look like in the "lcd tv - sony - bravia" Ad Group:

Sony Bravia TV
Get Great Deals on Sony Bravia
LCD TVs at Amazon.
Amazon.com

As you can see, the ad has the keyword in both the title and in the description and by having an ad that is relevant to ALL the keywords in an Ad Group, your Quality Score increases. Ad relevance is one of the factors that determine quality score and here are the other factors. I won't go into depth as to what the quality score is now but in short, it is what determines how much you will have to pay per click. So what you want to aim for is the highest quality score possible so that you pay the least per click and can get the best position as possible.

So now that we've established the basic framework of what a typical Search account looks like, I feel comfortable rolling up my sleeves and going into some of the nitty gritty details. I'll prevent information overload so will briefly touch upon some of the other key aspects that one needs to be aware of when launching a Search marketing campaign.

One thing to keep in mind is your budget. You shouldn't be disheartened if your company doesn't have an Amazon-esque budget to spend on your Search campaigns. With proper consulting, you can get the most out of your Search dollars. When deciding how much to allocate to each campaign, think of the popularity of the category. Let's say in addition to TVs and Computers, I had another campaign for Networking (i.e., cables, storage, etc.). This isn't as popular as TVs and Computers so it wouldn't make sense to allocate to the three campaigns with an even split of the budget; giving TVs and Computers 40% each and Networking 20% would make more sense. Keep in mind that this isn't a rule set in stone and you should move money and allocate towards performance a few days/week after a campaign has launched. So for example, if I see that my TV campaign is performing much better than I predicted, I'd shift more dollars from either of the two lesser performing ones.

Everything in this post gives a fundamental look at how a Search campaign should be set up. Of course, there are so many other facets to it, but I'll save those for other posts : ) I hope this was informative and if your company is looking to venture into Search then at least this is something you can relay to your marketing team to teach them the basics.

Social Media: What's All The Hoopla?

My older brother often asks me "What's so great about Facebook?". My short and simple answer:"It helps me stay connected." In a nutshell, Facebook is designed to help you communicate with those in your network, whether it's family, friends, co-workers, or even strangers from halfway across the world. Contrary to the popular preconceived notion that Facebook is just a means of wasting time, it is actually so much more. Granted, the overwhelming majority of Facebook users do just waste their time by taking silly quizzes, perusing through their friends' pictures, or by just looking for attractive people (read: "stalking"). Although these can be fun and a way to kill time, that's not what I feel the social network's true purpose is.

One of my friends, who is one of the few people I know not on Facebook, told me that he felt it was a waste of time. Taking his comment almost as a personal insult, I gave him my quick 2 minute marketer's pitch about why I feel it's important and why I encourage people to be on it. I have lots of family in London and I get along with them pretty well and from time to time, like to know what they're up to. Before the advent of Facebook, I'd write them one-liner emails asking how they're doing and how they've been. They'd respond with their whereabouts and reciprocate the questions I asked them. BORING! Gone are those days where I'd be reluctant to reply to their emails as it would just get down-right redundant after a few back-and-forth emails. Now, it's much more dynamic and so much more interesting. How? Well, now I show them what I'm up to rather than them having to ask, either by status updates, Twitter messages, or pictures I post. So now they can see that I was in Rhode Island on some given weekend and they can actually see how beautiful the scenery is without me having to describe it or attach photos (which was also a chore!). That's just the bare bones concept; there's so much more I can dive into but that's beyond the scope of this post. I'll try to add to this one if I continue to hear people dismissing social networks.

I know there are some who like to be cryptic and keep to themselves and would rather prefer not to have their personal life out on display. OK, I respect your privacy and understand where you're coming from. However, those same people shouldn't be ignorant and feel as if they're being forced to provide information. After all, you choose what you want to post. Had a great vacation in Brazil? Show the pictures of the beautiful scenery, not of you taking body shots off of the local waitresses. Don't demonize social networks because you posted something potentially incriminating. When posting, keep in mind that the Internet is a massive medium and if there are some things that can get you in trouble, keep those to yourself. I give you that word of caution.

Let's step aside from Facebook and look at some of the other social networks. I won't pretend to be an expert on social networks but I do know a decent amount. In addition to Facebook, I'm also an active member on LinkedIn and Twitter. I'll just touch briefly on what each of these are and why I feel they're important. LinkedIn is what I like to refer to as "Facebook for Professionals". It works similar to Facebook but it doesn't concentrate so heavily on pictures, notes, etc. Rather, it takes a more professional approach and helps you link up with people you may know. It derives from the basic principles of "Seven Degrees of Separation". Here's an illustration to help clarify: I'm friends with Joe Shmoe. Joe is friends with John Smith. John's company is looking to explore Search marketing and sees that Joe knows someone in that field (me!). So John approaches me and tells me that he could use my services and would like some guidance on how to approach their Search campaigns. Voila! A connection has been made. To add even more, let's say Joe and I worked together and he wrote a raving review about me and how I'm great to work with, etc. This further encourages John to contact me because his buddy Joe is saying good things about me so I should be considered as a serious candidate. This is just one simple scenario; imagine more elaborate ones where you have the potential to get noticed by an employer/head hunter who feels you're a viable candidate for a more senior role (i.e., Director, VP, etc.). I use LinkedIn more as a utility to help me get noticed, much like I use this blog. I am a strong advocate of the old adage "It's not what you know, it's who you know." You can be the smartest person out there but if you don't know anyone or vice versa, your true potential will never be realized. This is why I encourage people to join LinkedIn so they can get noticed by the important people in their field.

Twitter, on the other hand, is different from both Facebook and LinkedIn. Well, at least I think so. I use Twitter to throw my thoughts out there, despite how random they may be at times. It helps me to just unwind and get my brain thinking. I remember free-writing in school where I would just write anything that came to mind; now, I do the same with Twitter. Surprisingly, it helps me get my thoughts in order and it helps me clear my mind. Aside from the random things I Twitter, I feel that Twitter has a greater purpose. First and foremost, Twitter is a great communication tool. Often, I see fellow Twitterers asking questions or asking for advice and within minutes, their followers (Twitter's term for friends) reply by the dozens and give their input. It's the way collaboration was meant to be: dynamic and in real-time. Second, Twitter can be used as a great market research tool. Working in Search, it's important to know about the trends and what consumers are thinking and how they are behaving. Let's say I have a client that is a travel agency (i.e., Cheaptickets, Orbitz, etc.) or an airline (Delta, US Airways, etc.) and there's an amazing new resort in San Diego and people are Twittering rave reviews about it. For simplicity's sake, let's refer to this amazing resort as The Grand Resort (lame name, I know. It's late so gimme a break!). So now imagine hundreds, if not thousands, of people writing tweets (Twitter's term for a message) "The Grand Resort was amazing. Definitely going back!" or to some variation of that. There would be a huge spike in traffic for terms like "San Diego resort" or even "The Grand Resort" and my job as a search marketer would be to capitalize in that small window. I could quickly take these terms and concatenate "cheap tickets" or "great deals" to them, i.e., "cheap tickets to San Diego", "great deals on the Grand Resort". If these tweets were coming in now, then there would be a great opportunity to capitalize on this as spring break is around the corner and this could very well be a popular destination. One of the key aspects of marketing is timing and if you're timing is right, the other variables will fall into place.

So there's my quick pitch on the importance of social networking. I hope I've convinced those who aren't on any of the above-mentioned social networks to at least join one.

Cheers.

P.S.: For those wondering why the blog is named "In SCearch", it's because the SC in SCearch are my initials and this blog consists of my views and experiences with Search.

Search: What is it?

I think it's a fair assumption to make that anyone who's used the Internet has heard of Google. The term "Google it" has become synonymous with the phrase "search it"; it can even be argued that it has replaced it in some demographics. So what exactly is this Google and how did it earn the nickname "Big G"? Not getting into all the details of what Google is, I will mention what it is known for: Search ads. The bulk of Google's revenue comes from selling ad space on their search results page and just like real estate, those prices vary depending on where your ad appears. Google isn't the only player in this space; there are also Yahoo, MSN, and Ask. However, Google does have the lion's share of the volume (approximately 70%) in the Search space so for the sake of simplicity, we'll just focus on that.

As the economy continues to worsen, I feel that Search will be the route most (smart) companies will want to explore. Unlike traditional media (i.e., TV, Print, etc.), Search has a different cost structure. In traditional media, you pay up front and in Search, you pay after the fact. For example, if I wanted to advertise during the Super Bowl, it would cost me north of a million dollars at minimum and I would have to pay that up front to the broadcaster. However, in Search, you pay after Google (or the other Search Engines) has calculated the amount of clicks your ads have received. This is more cost-efficient because you are only paying for actual transactions (i.e., clicks) and not impressions, like with TV. So with TV, you are paying to appear and with Search, you are paying to get noticed. Here's an analogy that I feel will help to clarify: Think of TV as buying a Kiton suit; everyone around you will notice the suit but everyone may not comment on it. Now think of Search as a really nice suit from Banana Republic, where lots of people notice it and many people compliment on it. With Search, you pay a fraction of the price and you're not only getting noticed but you are also sparking an action from the users, in this case being a click. In terms of efficiency, Search is a no-brainer. However, I don't want to come off as subjective. If you want to build awareness to the masses then TV is still the way to go; if you want to build awareness to those who are more tech savvy and resort to the Internet for information, Search would be your best option. In the big picture, all marketing mediums (i.e.,TV, Search, Display/Rich Media) have to work in tandem to produce results.

Now that I've established the basic fundamentals of Search (hopefully!), I'll write more in-depth postings in the future. In the meantime, if you are eager to learn more about Search and cannot wait for my next posting, I suggest reading Avinash Kaushik's blog. He is an Analytics Evangelist for Google and has some very insightful stuff.

Cheers.

Tip of the Iceberg

After much procrastination, I finally managed to get this blog up and running. This has been in the works for two years but I've never either had the time to sit down and write or I've let procrastination and laziness prevail. However, I finally put a rest to that and decided that it was time to start blogging and I guess waiting has turned out to be beneficial as I have a lot more to say now than I would have two years ago.

For starters, I've begun my career in Search marketing. In slightly over a year, I've learned a lot about Search and I intend on passing my knowledge on to you, my fellow readers : ) Aside from Search, I've learned so much more about social media, namely the big players (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.). I won't get into all of that now but I definitely intend on doing so in future posts.

Before I let this "tip" of the iceberg turn into something you'd find miles under water, I'll wrap it up here. Essentially, what I intend for this blog to be is a constructive dialogue between myself and my readers and I want this to be an on-going learning experience. Having said that, I hope you enjoy these posts and I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers.