With SES New York only two weeks away, I reached out to a really smart guy I first took notice of last year.  Craig Macdonald, CMO at Covario, is scheduled to co-host a panel on Day 2 of SES New York entitled, “SEO Performance Marketing: Paid Search is Accountable, so why not SEO?“  Breaking with tradition, this interview surpasses the 2000 word count, so it’s definitely not for the meek.  However, don’t let the word count scare you, as Craig and I discuss so many topics ranging from SEO to PPC to social media, you’re bound to be glued to your seat.

Garry: People are finally beginning to appreciate that there is rhyme and reason behind SEO, but there is a lot of noise out there; a lot of snake oil to be bought and sold.  What is your top recommendation on how to find a reputable SEO firm?  Do you think it’s fair to ask for performance-based contracts?

Craig: I agree, there is no magic in SEO.  It comes down to an SEO agency having an approach that creates predictability in results, and can do so at scale.  To do this requires the SEO agency to have 3 key characteristics.

First, they have to use technology.  Without technology, the “administration” of SEO can take up to 50% of the efforts of the agency staff, which includes: keyword research, site auditing, rank tracking, post click behavior analysis.  With technology, the administration is automated and the humans focus on what the machines cannot – oh, and by the way, on the stuff that actually drives results.  Key activities, such as link building, content development, and solving IT problems, cannot be solved if the people who are supposed to be solving them are busy with spreadsheets trying to figure out keyword ranking.

Second, the agency has to have qualified staff.  That seems obvious – but so many agencies have very thin benches.  There is the sales leader who shows up at the pitch meeting and wows everyone with intimate knowledge of canonical tags, redirect strategies, how do beat load balancing on the server farm.  But the people who show up to execute the project are far more junior, far less experienced.  I would argue that the first point (above) and this second point are intertwined. Without a large investment in technology, and a change is agency business model to staff a deep bench, a company’s SEO effort is doomed.  The key to SEO success in is ensuring competent and predictable execution.

Third, the agency needs analytic competency.  SEO, though predictable, is not necessarily easy.  And having an agency with some analytic chops is a good thing.  The big questions we get from clients are “I can do 100 things, which 3 should I do?” or “how do I leverage social media to drive SEO improvements?” We are constantly being pushed by clients to drive “game changing” SEO results, which require us to do specialized projects, leverage new data sources to figure out new relationships, and do relatively complex analysis to test cross channel impacts of media.  I believe all agencies are being pushed in this direction – and an advertiser should make sure their agency can delivery insight, not just work.

So is it fair to ask for performance-based contracts?  I would phrase the issue slightly differently.  If my agency is not willing to sign-up for performance-based pricing, this means that their methodology lacks predictability – which I would interpret as a red flag.  As an agency, if I feel that I can predict my results, then I can appropriately gauge the risk of performance pricing, and therefore, can (a) align my incentives with those of my customers and (b) appropriately price the risk so that the pricing is fair.  It is not only a legitimate pricing process for advertisers, but one that I believe is an indicator of an agency that will deliver results, versus one that will not.

Garry: Great to know for those looking outsourcing, now let’s look at in-house.  With all the tools available to marketers and analysts, you can — again — get lost in the noise.  Where would you turn to first as a primary indicator of success from an SEO campaign?

Craig: “there are lies, damn lies, and statistics” said Mark Twain.  I find many companies either (a) get lost in the statistics or (b) find statistics that shape a particular view of the world.  A common symptom of a poor SEO program is having too many stats.  I can tell you, senior executives don’t know what SEO people are talking about half the time.  Ranking, visitors, tagging – this is the equivalent of Martian to most business people.  The other foible is finding a statistic that makes one look good, but is irrelevant to the business dynamics of the organization. “How are we ranking on our branded term?” – if the answer isn’t somewhere between 1st and 1st – then something is wrong.

I believe the best indicator of SEO campaign success is market share. It is a wonderfully clarifying statistic.  Is shows whether traffic to the site from SEO is going up or down in a practical business context – versus the major competition of the advertiser.

No senior marketer on the planet is unaware of the importance of market share to a brand.  And if the market share of an advertiser in search is not as great as the sales market share of the product being advertised, what assurance does that brand have that it will maintain its market share in the future?

Garry: Search engine optimization isn’t new, we’ve been doing this for several years already.  The game is constantly changing, engines change their
algorithms, competition increases year over year, new platforms and content sources get added to SERPs, etc. Is there still room to compete against millions of other pages?  Or should we focus on optimizing for each and every content type?

Craig: There is an old saying that lawyers use.  If the facts are on your side; argue the facts.  If the law is on your side; argue the law. And if neither is on your side; well, then yell really loud.

In SEO, it is all about relevancy because the “law”, in this case the search engines, care about nothing but relevancy of the results they serve searchers.  So argue the law.  Strategy has to revolve around where the brand being marketed is relevant.  I don’t ascribe to the strategy of optimizing for a wide swath of words, because the draconian facts are that if you are not in positions 1, 2 , 3 or 4, you are in the desert, and you frankly shouldn’t bother too much.   So concentrate efforts where there is potential, and the brand has “permission to win.”  A brand should compete against their natural competitors and on their brand categories.

Remember, particularly for large companies, if your content is the best, then why should you not be the best at SEO.  If your SEO results are comparatively poor, then that is a reflection of either your SEO program quality, or the realistic perception of your brand.

I do reserve the right to change that answer for travel, media, and ecommerce companies.  Since the number of SKUs being sold on their sites is massive. (for examples travel -  it is about “cheap flights” … “cheap flights to New York”, “cheap flights to anywhere,” and 1M other variants).  So focusing on brand permission is not possible.  With these businesses, the job is long-tail management.  In detail, the goal is not brand specific victory, but scrum warfare where being 10th on everything is better than being 1st on 1/10 of the words.

Garry: Some great points in that last answer.  Turning now to paid search (PPC) performance versus SEO.  Is it even fair to compare?  Why or why not?

Craigh: It is fair to compare.  Here’s why.  Paid and organic search are clearly interrelated.  If an advertiser has an organic listing on the first page of the search engine, variations in the paid search program, i.e., changes in the ranking of the paid search listing of that same advertiser, have an impact on the traffic, click through rate, and conversion rate of the organic listing.    At this point, given the amount of study devoted to this topic, the cannibalization effect of paid search on strong organic listings is nearly irrefutable.  So not comparing the performance of the two channels –paid and organic- borders on fiscal negligence.

However, most advertisers DO NOT compare results.  Why?  The reasons are mostly structural. SEO is usually part of web marketing, sometimes IT.  Paid search is part of advertising – the last bastion of corporate non-accountability. So getting the two disciplines to coordinate on strategy, on metrics, on comparability is difficult.

We have seen that when the rare company does find a way to coordinate the efforts of their paid and organic programs, they can get a 15-20% improvement in their overall search performance.

By the way, I used the term “overall search performance” on purpose.  In fact, I am assuming an advertiser can render a comprehensive report comparing the results, which is difficult, but doable! If you can’t measure performance in a routinized way, then you can’t compare results.  This ultimately means you can’t manage search comprehensively. 

Garry: I appreciate you mentioning overall search performance because managing both paid and organic search often means adapting to rapid change. Do you think it’s fair that engines get thoroughly scrutinized for poorly communicating what they’re looking for when ranking pages?  If you could ask three questions and be guaranteed answers from the engines, what  would they be?

Craig: It is fair, because the process by which the search engines rank results has a material impact on the financial results of the advertisers competing for the “above the fold” positions. Being #1 on a keyword like “life insurance” can make or break a quarter for a company like MetLife or Prudential (where I used to work).  So if the judge of my success makes my ability to predict my results inherently unpredictable through secrecy, then that is a problem for me financially. Therefore, the scrutiny is justified.

However, I will say that (a) I do not believe that the engines are as opaque regarding their methodologies as people believe and (b) that I do believe SEO results are controllable and inherently predictable.

Much of the hand wringing about the opacity of the engines is the result of deployment of less-than-best practices by advertisers that leave them befuddled as to why their results are sub-optimal – and therefore – like the kids on South Park – the reaction is Blame Canada!

Garry: Nice, BTW…

Craig: As for the 3 questions – I would ask a different question to each engine:

• Google – do video links to YouTube on your SERP get preferential treatment in the natural search algorithm, because Google can monetize click through on videos due to the banner ads that are served on the network, unlike other organic search listings.
  Note: I believe that preferential treatment of YouTube listings can be empirically measured (we just haven’t had the time to do it yet), but I would like to hear them “fess up” if true.
• Bing –  when can we expect to really support global customers, in all countries, in all geos, with Bing?  Right now,  particularly in Europe, there is no choice but Google.  Can the firm realistically develop a footprint in each geography?
• Yahoo – what’s next?

Garry: Not that there’s any shortage of great discussion in this post, but can you give me a sneak peek into what one might expect from the panel discussion at SES New York?

Craig: I have tried to put together a panel with some leading experts in SEO from some very large advertisers.  I have huge respect for their insights and experience.  What should attendees expect?

They should expect to hear relevant, useful case studies for how SEO is practiced at some of the largest advertisers in the world.  Specifically  how they overcome the challenges that most SEO professionals face, such as:

• building the business case,
• wrestling with IT,
• keeping brand and geo marketing managers focused on SEO,
• how they manage their agencies, and
• how they fight the “metric wars” which take place at most large advertisers.

They will also discuss two key topics – what technologies they are using to drive scalability in their SEO efforts, and how they are leveraging social media to drive SEO.  Wait, I just told the whole story.  That wasn’t a “sneak peak.”

Garry: Craig, you’ve gone above and beyond with this interview.  Thank you for all the great information and insights on all things search.

If you haven’t already done so, book your tickets for SES New York today.

About Search Engine Strategies

Search Engine Strategies is the definitive digital event for marketers, corporate decision makers, webmasters and search engine marketers (SEMs), including pay per click (PPC) advertisers and search engine optimization (SEO) professionals. Attend SES New York, network with your peers, meet with industry experts, and learn the tips, tactics and strategies that will grow your business online.

About Craig Macdonald

Craig Macdonald is responsible for the strategic direction, development and marketing of the Covario™ portfolio of solutions. Prior to Covario, Craig was the Director of Product Management for the service and management group within Hewlett Packard’s OpenView division where he oversaw service and asset management, configuration management, and discovery applications used by large enterprises worldwide. Previously, Craig held key positions at Peregrine Systems, Inc., Fair Isaac, HNC Software, World Research Advisory, META Group and Greenwich Associates. Craig earned an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and a BS from the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

I’m proud to present another series of pre-show interviews for one of my favorite online marketing conferences: Search Engine Strategies New York.  This time I’m sitting down with Rebecca Lieb of Econsultancy, perhaps one of the smartest and most influential women in the online marketing and social media space. Rebecca is solo host to a session entitled, “Igniting Viral Campaigns” on Wednesday March 24th.

Garry: Welcome Rebecca, and thank you for taking the time for this interview.  The term “viral” has been around for a while, do you think the industry would have defined a “viral campaign” two to three years ago any differently than it does today?  How would you frame some of the key milestones that changed the game in the last few years?

Rebecca: Rather like the industry craze for “clicks” around 10 years ago, it’s become clear to marketers that “viral” does not always equate with sales, ROI or other desired campaign results. Viral shouldn’t be a goal unto itself – it’s a means to an end. We’ve thankfully come a long way from the “build me a chicken” mentality of several years back, when Burger King’s Subservient Chicken was viewed as the ne plus ultra interactive marketing campaign. It was successful for Burger King, sure. But one size chicken does not fit all campaigns – or campaign goals.

Garry: Attempting to take campaigns viral can be extremely hit or miss.  Can you think of any examples where a seemingly great idea fell flat, or a relatively weak idea took off?

Rebecca: Sure, one kind of bad viral is when something goes viral for all the wrong reasons. “That’s Why I Chose Yale,” a recruitment video on YouTube, has comments disabled for a reason. It got written up in The New Yorker of all places, as a particularly spectacular and embarrassing failure. Maybe there is such a thing as bad publicity?

Another example I’ll likely cite in my talk is a very viral beer video from a few years back. People LOVED the spot, but no one could remember what brand was behind it. That violates one of the most basic tenets of advertising, no?

Garry: Well, unless you setup a sweet PPC or SEO campaign in advance, but you’re right, generally a bad idea.  In recent months, we’ve seen the dawn of real time search, an explosion in hyper-local, and a widespread adoption in social media.  In light of all this change, do you think it’s wiser to start extremely niche, or more general/widespread?

Rebecca: As with every other type of marketing, it’s best to start with your target, or with a selected target audience. Let your goals drive the campaign – I cannot stress that enough!

Garry: Fair enough, let’s focus on goals and ROI for a moment.  Many are calling for better ways to monetize social media. Are they missing the boat? How do you define the value proposition for participating in social media?

Rebecca: There are lots of possible ways to monetize social media, as well as to value it. Shameless plug: we at Econsultancy just published a major research report on this very topic. It all flows from goals. Yes, social media can result in sales. Look at examples like Zappos and Jet Blue and Dell for this. But there are other possible goals as well: Branding. PR. Word of mouth. Reputation management – and that’s just for starters. One big reasons marketers are having so much trouble measuring social media is because they don’t know what they’re trying to do in various social media channels, so they have no clue what to measure.

Garry: You’re hosting a solo session entitled, “Igniting Viral Campaigns”.  Can you give us a sneak peek, maybe a single example of what you plan to present at SES NY?

Rebecca: Well, certainly all of the above, plus a whole lot more, of course – examples, as well as theory and strategy. You’re just going to have to come to the session!

Garry: Great hook.

With that, I want to once again thank my guest Rebecca Lieb for finding time in her schedule to talk to me about viral campaigns. Start off the year on the right foot, book your tickets for SES New York today.

About Search Engine Strategies

Search Engine Strategies is the definitive digital event for marketers, corporate decision makers, webmasters and search engine marketers (SEMs), including pay per click (PPC) advertisers and search engine optimization (SEO) professionals. Attend SES New York, network with your peers, meet with industry experts, and learn the tips, tactics and strategies that will grow your business online.

About Rebecca Lieb

Rebecca oversees the U.S. operations of Econsultancy, the leading source of independent advice and insight on digital marketing and e-commerce. Earlier, she held executive marketing and communications positions at strategic e-services companies, including Siegel & Gale, and has worked in the same capacity for global entertainment and media companies, including Universal Television & Networks Group (formerly USA Networks International) and Bertelsmann’s RTL Television. As a journalist, she’s written on media for numerous publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Rebecca spent five years as Variety’s Berlin-based German/Eastern European bureau chief. Rebecca also served as The ClickZ Network’s editor-in-chief for over seven years; for a portion of that time, she oversaw SearchEngineWatch.com.

This February, I’m going to start a new recurring monthly post of recent news and events in the search marketing industry.  These are a collection of links to articles that I’ve collected over the month that I think are valuable resources to online marketing and can range from paid search, to SEO, to analytics, and social media.

• Google is smarter than you, it’s true.  Jessica over at PPC Hero posted “Your Managed Placements: Why They Don’t Work,” which details what happens when you try to single out high converting sites from your automatic content network campaigns.  Sometimes the results are less than great, hit up the link to find out why.
• ClickEquations released their eBook “21 Secret Truths of High-Resolution PPC” by Craig Danuloff.  Download will cost you your contact info, but their white papers, literature and blog posts throughout the year are well worth it.
• Rebecca Lieb of Econsultancy documents the ad-stravaganza that was Super Bowl XLIV in an article entitled “The Super Bowl and the value of social media,” which details how advertisers leveraged their ridiculous spend on social media platforms.
• John Lee of Clix Marketing wrote “What the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance meas to PPC Advertisers.”  John predicts that the alliance could mean great things for advertisers that are frustrated with YSM’s current interface; a unified advertising platform based on Adcenter’s interface is certainly a welcome change.  However, it could also mean we’ll pay a little bit more per click as a result of increased adoption and competition.
• Bryan Eisenberg actually tweeted this link to Luke Wroblewski’s post entitled, “Mad Libs Style Form Increases Conversion 25-40%.”  It’s a brilliant idea that probably won’t work for every website, but it’s definitely worth testing.
• Avinash Kaushik was nice enough to retweet an article I wrote entitled, “SEO metrics and where to find them,” which details a variety of tools marketers can use to measure the effectiveness and ROI of SEO campaigns.
• Some disturbing stats from Manoj Jasra in a post called “Half of Fortune 500 Have No Natural Search Visibility.”  Bad SEO? No problem, spend money on PPC to make up the difference, right?  Well, that’s one strategy, I guess.
• Nick Shin of Marketing Shindig recently wrote a blog post on “30 top objections to social media and how to respond” that got tremendous exposure.  Check it out if you are thinking of integrating social media in your online marketing mix, and need an arsenal of rebuttals.

Canada is certainly a hot bed amongst our international counterparts when it comes to technology and online media, and I’m proud to be included in such a prestigious list of fellow Canadian bloggers.  Certainly not just another site badge to add to the collection, the Top 50 Canadian Marketing Blog list is based on the AdAge Power 150.  See the full list after the break.

Top 50 Canadian Marketing Blogs

1. John Chow dot Com

2. Dosh Dosh

3. Danny Brown

4. IttyBiz

5. Dave Fleet

6. Get Elastic

7. Web Analytics World

8. PowerShift

9. The Michel Fortin Blog

10. WebTrafficROI

11. Twist Image

12. adgoodness

13. David Leonhardt’s SEO Marketing Express

14. Pro PR

15. Profectio

16. shape+colour

17. InspiredMoneyMaker.com

18. The Praized Blog

19. ideasonideas

20. Ian Lee – ADS-Links.com

21. Buzz Canuck

22. Blogging Me Blogging You

23. Canadian Marketing Blog

24. Leo Burnett Toronto

25. ASK Enquiro

26. Search Engine People Blog

27. AdJoke

28. Blog Campaigning

29. azaroff.com

30. chroma

31. One Degree

32. MediaBadger Monitor, Measure, Manage

33. PPC Advice

34. Experience Planner

35. Great-Ads

36. Radical Trust

37. Behind the Buzz

38. The Daily Grind

39. Burning the bacon with Barrett

40. EmailKarma.net

41. The New PR

42. Advertnews.com

43. My Name is Kate

44. Saul Colt

45. The Client Side Blog

46. PR Works

47. The inmedia blog

48. social media group

49. The Advert Fan

50. FlackLife

The buzz is certainly upon us.  Not unlike several months ago when Google spearheaded their PR campaign to introduce the world to what they thought (and still kinda is) a revolutionary work-flow solution in Google Wave, the company releases – albeit slowly – their social media platform entitled Google Buzz.  Obviously, social media has become the focus of tech-savvy companies the world over, minus those that haven’t objected to social media or don’t know where to start.  Few companies have really learned how to monetize the social media space.  This is one area where Google may have the upper hand and wherewithal to succeed with Google Buzz, they know how to monetize useful applications and platforms.

What is Google Buzz?

Google Buzz has been dubbed the Twitter killer, the next big thing in social media, etc — the droll marketing pitch rarely changes with time.  Essentially, Google Buzz is an application layer built on top of Gmail that acts like Twitter.  You can send and receive real time status updates from friends on Buzz, Twitter and other platforms.

What makes Google Buzz different?

Google promises a ton of interesting functionality including:

• Public and Private buzzing
• Integration with other social platforms
• Embedded media such as images, audio, and video
• Predictive filtering (based on observed behavior, hmmm, creepy)

To be sure, this is a great bunch of features, but as Kevin O’Leary might say during an episode of Dragon’s Den, “that’s great and everything, but tell me, how do I make money!?”

(Note: My Canadiana is showing again.  I think Kev is on “Shark Tank” for my American)

Luckily, if it’s one thing Google knows how to do, it’s monetize a successful platform.  Without saying, Google Search is a hugely successful platform for both Google and it’s Advertisers thanks to more than a decade of developing Google Adwords.  But don’t forget, Gmail is also a hugely successful platform for advertisers.  Embedded ads alongside your personal email are highly targeted, and often highly profitable spots to advertise.

Since Google Buzz sits atop Gmail, I’m willing to bet (because I don’t have access just yet… Google peeps hook me up!), ads are tightly integrated in this initial release, or a subsequent release, making the platform essentially pay for itself, and garnering a lot of attention in a highly starved competitive space.

As in any blog post published this early on in the game, I have to caveat my own observations with, “it’s too soon to tell” whether Buzz will go out like Wave.  However, unlike Wave, at least the majority of us online marketing and social media geeks have some idea what Buzz might be useful for.  That’s saying a lot, actually.

I’m a daily commuter to Toronto, traveling from the outskirts of the big city to the downtown core each and every day, weather permitting.  My routine is usually pretty uninspiring, but every once in a while something catches my eye and truly surprises me.  This is a story about a simple wheeled hand cart, and how it changed my outlook on an old-school grocery store’s seemingly unchanging corporate protocol with marketing ingenuity.

My day starts at the crack of dawn, actually well before the crack of dawn.  In the winter in Toronto, and probably many other North American cities such as Chicago and New York, it’s probably not that uncommon to wake up in darkness, go about your day, and commute home in darkness.  If you’re unlucky on any given day, you may never see the outside of your office or the light of the sun.  Plus the bitter cold is enough to keep you indoors most of the time anyways.  Yeah, winter kinda sucks.

After getting off the train in the morning, I usually opt to join the herd (almost literally) and make my way up the indoor PATH system to my office.  The corridors are lined with small franchise shops and some larger chains such as pharmacies and grocery stores that are able to afford the outrageous rent of this high-traffic area.  One such grocery store is Longo’s.  This is a widely-known brand in Southern Ontario, and their location along the dark underground corridor is pretty good.  However, when it comes to competing with smaller breakfast counters serving bagels, coffee, and sandwiches, they probably do not fare too well.  Until today.

Today I was pleasantly surprised to notice Longo’s taking the bull by the horn.  Outside their main entrance they placed a hand cart with bagels, confectioneries, and <gasp> coffee.  All of these items they already had within their grocery store but hidden amongst different aisles, making it difficult for commuters with bags to squeeze through to get their precious early morning “nom-noms”. (I always wanted to write “nom-noms” in a post)

Lo and behold, their line-up was impressive, and moving quickly.  Unlike in previous weeks where only those few commuters that could afford to wait for a checkout aisle were buying, the hand cart was doing some damage against the other franchises in the corridor.  More people than ever were now able to either shop for breakfast, lunch, and maybe even stocking their fridge at home and using the normal checkout aisle, or deciding to opt for only breakfast and get it quickly and easily.

How did this all come about?  My bet is someone at Longo’s started listening to visitors, or spotted a trend. This example is a classic case of actionable insight and execution at it’s finest.  And it didn’t take much!  Longo’s already had the baked goods, they already had the manpower, and they already had the traffic.  Now they have the cash.  How easy was that?

Social media is already slated as the online marketing weapon of choice for the new decade by pundits in the industry, are you ready to join the conversation?  Ugh, cliche already, but unfortunately quite fitting.  By social media, it’s important to distinguish between individual platforms or tools and over-arching marketing strategy.  You can’t talk about social media from a platform standpoint by only including Twitter in your tactical planning, you need to recognize all the facets and touch points that contribute to a holistic engagement program.  Start off on the right foot, and enroll in Marketwire’s Social Media SM10×30 fitness program and make good on your social media New Year’s resolution.

Disclosure: I work for Marketwire, but I contributed to this program and think it’s pretty good, honestly.  It’s free, so satisfaction is 100% money-back guaranteed.  What have you got to lose?

The structure of the SM10×30 program is divided into two tracks: Basic and Core Conditioning.  So if you think you’re past the beginner stages of social media participation, sign up for the Core Conditioning track, which is a bit more in-depth.  Or sign up for both and take your lessons a la carte.

After signing up, you’ll receive one email per day for 10 days (hence the 10) which last about 30 minutes a day (hence the 30).  By no means are you required to complete each task every day, and you can revisit any email at a later time.  At the end of the Basic track, you could even continue on and sign up for the Core Conditioning track to build on what you learned.

What’s also nice is that this is a truly interactive program.  Not only are you participating in safe social media spaces that Marketwire has created for you, but someone is also on hand to help you out.  Marketwire’s Social Media expert, Nick Shin, acts as your personal trainer throughout the program.  If you’ve ever had a social media question but were too afraid to ask, he’s the guy to reach out to.

If you do get started in the program, why not stop by and say hi?

• Marketwire’s PR blog
• Marketwire on Twitter
• Facebook Group
• Social Media Corner on LinkedIn

As I said before, consider enrolling in Marketwire’s Social Media SM10×30 fitness program to make good on your social media New Year’s resolution, or even find out whether you’re missing out on any valuable tips.

PPC-Advice.com has finally outgrown it’s web hosting.  I’m going to be moving the blog this weekend, so if it doesn’t show up for a few hours, please come back monday morning.  Everything should be smoothed out, and faster, by then.

Garry

You know, I didn’t know what to make of all the hype back at SES Chicago last year.  There were tons of people talking about how great Bing! had become, and how it would be so much better once they integrate Yahoo properties into Adcenter.  Being a seasoned veteran of the pay-per-click marketing game and having wasted many hours on trying to bleed the stone, I didn’t think twice about giving Microsoft another chance until recently.  Boy, was I wrong to wait!

When I started this blog back in 2007, the search landscape was pretty dull.  Google dominated, as it does today, and Yahoo and Microsoft MSN were competing for second place.  At the time, I was focusing my efforts on highly competitive campaigns in Google Adwords, the normal stuff: tweaking ad copy, setting up A/B split tests on landing pages, and driving up quality score.  When I tried the same successful campaigns and landing pages in Microsoft Adcenter and Yahoo Search Marketing, I was sorely disappointed with the results.

Back in the day, you couldn’t just port existing Adwords creative and landing pages to the other two engines because the traffic seemed so dissimilar at the time, that large-scale change was required in order to be successful.  That meant revisiting all prior knowledge of what worked and what didn’t and how each translated to a very different ad serving algorithm.  It just wasn’t worth the time to mess around with because of the low traffic numbers to both secondary engines.

That was then, this is now

Nearly three years later, Microsoft is making a name for itself in the search marketing field.  Yes, they’ve rebranded their search engine yet again, they have yet another four letter word domain, and they still have relatively low traffic numbers, however this time they have an ace up their sleeve.

With an impending switchover due hopefully sometime soon, Microsoft will start serving it’s search results on Yahoo.com.  All of a sudden, the two secondary engines will be a force to contend with.  Yeah, Google will always have their majority stake in the market, but with a unified advertising platform, marketers will no longer run into the problems of yesteryear.  What makes BingHoo so much better this go around?

• Bing’s search results are on par with Google:
  Some say this isn’t such a great thing because Microsoft hasn’t differentiated itself, but I respectfully disagree.  What Microsoft has done is made the system easier for users and marketers to compare, apples to apples.  In terms of volume, they’re still going to be behind, but the rest is eerily similar.
• Community support from agencies and in-house marketers:
  Some say having a bigger second-place competitor to Google will spur greater innovation, and I couldn’t agree more.  Just look at all the new additions to Google’s front page and search results.  Twitter integration, additional filtering options, fancier homepage, etc.  I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
• Conversions are easier, much easier:
  In a search marketing world so focused on success, Microsoft makes it damn easy.  I can’t explain exactly how or why, but they seemed to get ad serving correct this go around.  Also, using Adwords creative and winning landing pages from Google campaigns into Bing seems to work a lot better.

It might be too soon to tell, but the world might soon adopt a second opinion in Bing.  I know I have finally seen the light (and the ROI) from this once discarded advertising program.

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the first working day of the decade!

Although I have thoroughly enjoyed the downtime during the holiday season, I took a long-needed break from tweeting (as a grown man, I still feel utterly shamed saying that) and invested a good amount of time expanding my blogging empire.  It all came about when I started researching my top posts of 2009.  I realized that my most popular articles were those about web analytics, so locking myself in my home office just before New Year’s Eve I hacked yet another perfectly fine Wordpress theme to build a brand new blog dedicated to web analytics called Analytics-Advice.com.

Please visit, comment, bookmark, subscribe to RSS, and favorite it all over.  Because, well, I’ll know if you bounce.