Online Marketing Blog by FoundPages

Google's Local Business Dashboard - Don't Do Local Search Without It!

2009-06-09T22:11:00.005-06:00

Today, we'd like to show you how to take advantage of Google Local Business listings. The Google Maps team has just launched a new dashboard in its free Local Business Center that will provide you with information on how users interact with your local listing on Google Maps and Google Search.

This is very important as local listings has become an increasingly important part of the Google algorithm. Because the information is verified using humans or via phone book listing, Google gives strong weight to those who are listed. This will result in your listing being shown in more search results.

As you can see below, the dashboard will show you stats such as how many times your business comes up as a search result, how often people click through, which queries led customers to the business listing, as well as which zip codes customers are coming from when they request directions to your location. All you have to do is claim your listing in the Local Business Center and go through a quick verification process to get access to this information.

For the local business who relies on Google in helping customers find the business, you can now measure the impact of search, especially the top search queries that result in your business showing up in the listings. Once you see these search queries, you’ll want to have your listing show up more often in searches. This will lead you into assessing whether you should move forward and buy the keywords in the Google AdWords campaign. You’ll also want to think about optimizing your website to get more inbound traffic from natural search results who are LOOKING for your product or service.

If you are interested in knowing more, go to the Office Google Blog to learn more details about Google's new Local Business Center Dashboard.

Google Local Business Listings

2009-03-18T09:47:00.005-06:00

If you're like most SMB's, you probably do a substantial amount of your business locally. Traditionally, people used local phone books or yellow pages to find services like yours. However, people are now turning to Google to find local service providers, and therefore you're at risk of losing to your competitors if your business is not listed in the Google Local Business Listings.

Google Local Business Listings typically show up when the user types a service oriented business followed by the city for their search. A Google Map appears alongside with up to ten URLs including phone numbers for each business. Google’s Local Business Listings are becoming even more important since they are being displayed more often in search before organic listings even start. As a result, they often get most of the clicks from users.

Google uses Yellow Pages and other business directory information from third party providers to generate the basic local search results. If your business is already in Yellow Pages, it'd likely be listed in Google local business listings. However, the information is often limited and usually does not take advantage of the new features that are available on Google.

Go to Google Local Business Center to create your free listing or claim ownership of an existing listing and update your business information. Remember to review your local listings from time to time. Google continues to add new features to the local listing, like the ability to integrate YouTube videos. Using Google Local Business Listings and its features will keep your listing exciting and attract more visitors to your website.

Online Press Releases - SEO Food

2009-02-26T22:46:00.003-07:00

One of the best and easiest ways to get PR is to issue online press releases. There are a number of outlets such as PRweb or PRLeap. In addition to getting the word out to thousands of news and blog outlets quickly and at low cost, SEO'ed press releases have the additional value of getting indexed almost immediately. They also enjoy the benefit of being fresh and new, and can get high rankings for the keywords it is using.

A search engine optimized press release can reach thousands of people if handled correctly. Google and Yahoo search engines and news is how today's journalists and reporters get their sources and facts. Here are some stats from PRWeb's website that press (pun intended) home this point:

98% of journalists go online daily
92% for article research
81% to do searching
76% to find new sources, experts
73% to find press releases

On an average day, 68 million American adults go online

30% use a search engine to find information
27% get news.

As you can see, the Internet is or is fast becoming the source for news and a properly SEO optimized press release can get you noticed far eaiser than traditonal press release outlets. This is because your release will be keyworded, so that can be much more easily found by journalists who are LOOKING for your content and news!

Online news outlets that are hungry for new content, along with bloggers who are looking for news, will quickly publish your release in the hopes of attracting visitors.

There's a modest cost for this, and in addition to get your 'news' out there, it will give your website some Google 'juice' if the content is properly linked back to your website. This will increase your website's visibility temporarily. All this will result in more traffic to your website, which usually isn't a bad thing.

Be sure to also put the press release on your website to get even more bang for your buck. More info on online press releases can be found here.

Free SEO Tools at FoundPages

2009-02-01T15:14:00.006-07:00

With SEO and SEM becoming more common and understood, there appears to be an upsurge in interest in tools for improving Google PageRank and traffic. For most websites, most visitors come via search engines (even if they know your name) than any other way. Something we don't promote but you should use are the free SEO tools available on this website.

Use it freely, as there is no cost, but keep in mind that they are tools. Tools that can help you analyze and measure your current situation, but they don't improve your website - only you can do that! There are many other resources on this website to help you with doing that.

One of the easiest things, is to update your website regularly. Updating content and adding more pages will get your website noticed by search engine crawlers, and new pages will add to the number of pages you will get indexed by the search engines. You don't need specialists to do this, and no one knows your business better than you do.

The pages don't have to be about your product or service. For example, if you sell cargo nets (like one of our customers), it can be about the legislation and laws surrounding the requirements. Or a page on how to install it properly on a truck. All this can get indexed, and help you with the 'long tail' in search. Just remember to add unique tags to them, and to add the page to the sitemap.

The long tail refers the keywords that are not searched a lot, but the many searches for various unique phrases that are very detailed and relevant for a searcher. For example, 'cargo net law' is a long tail search, that would bring visitors interested in cargo nets regulations, that then might interested in purchasing a cargo net that complies.

I'll have more on the SEO tools in the next few blogs, on what the benchmarks mean and how to improve them. These tools should be part of every online marketer's toolkit today. If you are a small to medium size business (SMB), you ignore search engine marketing metrics at your own peril.

Lower Bounce Rates Mean More Leads

2009-01-04T17:22:00.001-07:00

Among web analytic statistics, the bounce rate is one of the metrics often overlooked by many marketers. A bounce rate is the percentage of single page visitors to your website that left your website quickly after arriving. Some advanced systems also use visit duration to calculate bounce rate which treat visitors as bounces if they stay on the site for less than 5 seconds.

Bounce rate can also be defined as negative statistic. It measures how engaging your website is to your visitors and how it relates to the intention of them. It also measures how effective and 'sticky' your landing page is when it's used with a campaign. Lack of relevancy is a major cause of bounces, and solving this will increase lead generation by an order of magnitude sometimes.

A high bounce rate usually indicates something wrong with your website's landing pages. However, the problem can also be caused by where you acquire your traffic. Let's look at a few things you can do to reduce bounce rates (lower is better).

Analyze the bounce rate for your traffic sources
Many inbound marketers use social media as part of their marketing campaigns. However, many of these referrers are low-value. These visitors aren't "looking" when they arrive at your website so they tend to leave immediately. You don't have to worry too much about bounce rates from these traffic sources but you should know which referrers contribute to the high bounce rates. If you are using social media advertising like Facebook ads, you should have a specific landing pages to create demand and guide your visitors to whatever you're advertising.

Not giving the banana to the monkey
This is a classic conversion problem. When people arrive at your website and can't find what they want, they would leave right away and go to your competitors websites instead. You only have a few seconds to let the visitors know that they are at the right place so "give the banana to the monkey." Make sure you have clear and obvious conversion points for your visitors. These conversion points should also tailor to the different interests of the visitors such as home buyers vs home sellers at a realtors website. While home buyers want to see what listings are available, the home sellers want to know why they should use the provided services to advertise their homes.

Match interests to the sales cycle
This is mainly related to organic search engine traffic. A website might rank highly on certain keywords but these keywords are often irrelevant. Similar to the previous point, when people don't find what they are looking for, they leave. Many 'content' websites with high search visibility often receives high traffic for irrelevant search terms. You should understand the Search Buying Cycle and adjust your content to use keywords according to different phases of the buying cycle. Also avoid having too much unrelated content, like too much profile information on every client.

Improve landing pages
Pay-Per-Click campaigns often have high bounce rates. Simple landing pages with only one call to action are often the issue. Email marketing campaign can possibly cause high bounce rate too if the subject line is misleading or the links take recipients to an unrelated page. It might also be the offer that's too aggressive (eg buy now) on the landing page. Consider having micro-conversions on the landing pages. A micro-conversion doesn't turn the visits into sales but it turns visitors into leads so that you can nurture them into sales. This is particularly effective for B2B.

B2B websites typically have average bounce rate of 10-30%. If your bounce rate is higher than that, you should flag it and find out why. Having high bounce rates doesn't mean the end of the world if you understand what's causing it and take actions to improve it. It might take a few round of tests to nail it down but the effort you put in will turn you website into one that's relevant for your visitors. They will engage if it fits their needs.

The Sky is Not Falling on Online Advertising

2008-11-11T15:50:00.004-07:00

During economic slowdowns, business spend more carefully, yet need to increase revenue to offset a loss of business from it's existing customer base. So it's always a contradiction to see companies cut back on marketing, when they likely need it the most.

No so for online advertising according to the Rubicon Project. They indicate that more global advertising dollars will actually increase the online advertising market, helping to increase the total amount spent online.

According to their report, millions of dollars are being taken from traditional mediums such as newspapers and television. Why? It's not the usual easier to track and ROI arguement. It's because their researchers have found that online advertising has better reach globally than TV or newspapers.

Their researchers have found that out-of-country visitors make up about 40% of traffic to U.S. based websites, and more than 50% of traffic to international websites come from the U.S. So much for thinking that the traditonal broadcast mediums have more reach.

So with online advertising being lower cost, more effective, easier to buy, and now with better reach, it's easy to see how online advertising will continue to grow, even in the slower growth economy. And guess what? Afterwards, the advertisers will stick with it having tried it.

In other developements, comScore reports that there has been large jumps in traffic to financial websites, due in part to the financial markets. Put that together with what I mentioned above and you know one of the best places to advertise right now during tougher times is online, and on financial websites.

The sky is definitely not falling on online advertising.

Need A Little Chrome on Your Browser?

2008-09-12T16:41:00.005-06:00

Google is a little like most politicians. They keep denying this and that, when it's obvious that they are going to something. In this case, it was create their own browser. Called Chrome, they had to finally let the cat out of the bag, when this clever comic book was discovered by the public before they were ready.

Although there are a lot of reviews and explanations for Chrome out there already, I'm gonna give my simple-minded spin. The comic explains the reasons, but it's somewhat technical, and definitely biased.

Chrome is Google's ultimate weapon. They know if you control the browser, you get to direct user behavior. Sure, the reasons are better speed, easier to run web apps, security, less crashing etc, but the REAL reason in my opinion was ensure they had a platform that they could control to make all the things they want work - work. And to ensure that Microsoft didn't stop them by not allowing it, or SLOWLY cooperating.

Firefox is already open source and does most of the things that Google needs. But they don't control Firefox, and besides Firefox is only about 18-20% of the market. And because Firefox can't be bought because of their company structure, Google put their tremendous resources to work and built their own.

So what that mean to you dear reader? You will have another choice to make. With all the free applications and tools from Google, you can be sure they will run better in Chrome. On the other hand, some things, especially Microsoft products (both paid and free) will likely not be as compatible. Think of it as what a browser was supposed to do, but without the wrinkles that Microsoft plugged in to make their browsers 'better'.

What I'm going to do is keep using Firefox, until I see a clear need to switch to Chrome. I might have Chrome on my desktop, in case something I'm using really needs to run in Chrome (just like I have IE on my desktop for IE 'enhanced' web pages), but otherwise, the last thing I need is another browser.

Where it does make sense is when they make Chrome usable on a PC without an operating system. Which is what I think is the ultimate goal. No Windows, just boot up your Netbook and use your browser for everything. Then your phone is next with Google's Android project. No wonder Microsoft doesn't like Google.

BTW, the comic book a lot better in my opinion than the Seinfeld/Microsoft commercials, because frankly most people don't get the commercial...the commercial has a pile of inside jokes while at least with the comic, you can ask somebody what all the geek means.

Yellow Pages Advertising to Decline by 40%?

2008-08-06T16:53:00.003-06:00

According to a new report from Borrell Associates, printed classified ads will be virtually dead within the next 5 years. And in fact Yellow Pages advertising will begin turning to online versions at a rate of 38%. So although it will lose dramatically on the traditional end, Yellow Pages sales representatives will sell online ads at about the same rate to offset the revenue loss.

This apparently amounts to a loss of $5 billion over the next 5 years, and accounts for 39% of its annual revenue size.

The change is due the fact that online mediums are becoming the most popular with marketers and business owners. Online ads, video and paid search offer more bang for the buck, and allow changes even after the ad is bought. Add in campaign tracking and interactive capabilities, and you can see how online has a tremendous advantage.

Although traditional advertising is learning to switch to online, like the above example with the Yellow Pages, the question is: has the buyer? Yellow Pages online is not used nearly as extensively as Google or Yahoo, even with local search. Most people use online directories ONLY after not being able to find it using a major search engine. And with more and more advertisers understanding the value of being found in a search engine, they tend to ensure they are in Google so where does that leave the directories like Yellow Pages?

Get a download summary copy of 'Say Goodbye to Yellow Pages' by clicking here. It's a massive change that marketers and business owners should stay on top of, to get the most out of their limited advertising budgets.

Keep all this in mind when your Yellow Pages rep calls you next time. The directory industry has over 34,000 local sales reps, so you can bet you will getting a call.

SEM Canada Off, Vancouver Internet Marketing Conf Still On

2008-07-15T15:14:00.004-06:00

In case you were eagerly waiting for the SEM Conference in Calgary, you're going to have to wait a little longer. It has been postponed until October 2009. Apparently a major corporate sponsor is in the offing, but as you can guess, the big companies can't move fast enough to accommodate the short fuse that the conference has with it being originally scheduled for this September.

This is probably good, as being the first annual, there is a lot of ground work that still has to happen, that the relatively short timeframe didn't allow for. Better to wait and get everything ready and lined up, rather than rush it and risk a poor result. Also, the original date was VERY close to the Internet Marketing Conference in Vancouver, which attracts a VERY similar audience. IMC has not had a conference in Canada since Vancouver in 2002, and as a result, has a strong following.

We'll now have more time to prepare for IMC Vancouver, where we have both a speaking engagement on B2B search engine marketing, and a demo of ActiveConversion lined up. It's scheduled for September 11-12, 2008 at the Coast Plaza Hotel. Hope to see you there!

Interview by Brian Carter

2008-07-09T17:46:00.005-06:00

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Brian Carter of Fuel Interactive, for the upcoming SEM Canada conference. I haven't had a chance to listen to it much, but it's a great way to cover alot of ground in SEM and online marketing.

Brian is the Director of Search Marketing for Fuel, based in South Carolina. Brian is an SEOmoz Pro Member and Google AdWords Qualified search marketing trainer, consultant, and speaker. Brian has more than eight years experience in the internet industry and is well known in the search engine marketing industry.

Being that one of our specialties in B2B and using SEO/SEM with longer sales cycles, we decided to cover those topics in detail. Brian was gracious to also ask me about www.ActiveConversion.com, which helps companies capitalize on search and online marketing.

The MP3 is around 45 minutes long, and I think you may find it interesting.

The interview is in his blog article which is here: http://adwordsconsultant.blogspot.com/2008/07/interview-mp3-with-fred-yee-of.html

Here is a condensed list of things we cover:

Search marketing in the B2B space
2.5m businesses that could benefit from SEM
Advantages of online marketing over offline marketing
Why Microsoft would spend so much to buy Yahoo
Branding vs. Niche direct marketing
Case study: Evans Console who sells $250k consoles to NASA and FedEx
Effect of interactive marketing on Yellow Pages
The Calgary business scene, and search marketing scene
Shifting from the part-time in-house to search marketing agency experts
Conversion tracking for lead generation campaigns
A more sophisticated way to track and stay in touch with long buying cycle sales prospects

Lightning round topics! Fred's quick opinions on...

Twitter
Yellow pages
LinkedIn
Local search
Canadians
Americans
Calgary

Google Ad Planner and Google Trends

2008-06-30T14:44:00.004-06:00

Online advertising just got even easier with Google's new tools for planning your online media buys. Google Ad Planner help advertisers match what they sell, with the demographic that is most suited for what they sell, on the websites that most likely has that demographic. So what that all means is you/we can easily find and advertise on the websites most likely to be interested in what you're selling

You may think you already know what they are, but with millions of websites out there, it is a lot of work going thru them, and figuring out if this is an appropriate website (and adding more). The info includes gender, income range, and education, that can make your ad planning much easier by being able to target exactly who you want to see your ad. It will also make finding those kind of websites very easy.

This had been a problem with Google's contextual ads before, which were keyword based, but could show on almost any website, unless you spent a lot of time specifying which websites you wanted to show the ad on. Most people didn't, and as a result, the click thru rates for contextual ads were usually very poor, especially compared to search ads. Google Ad Planner fixes that, and you will see contextual ads really start to take off as a result, if you know how to take advantage of it.

Google Trends is related, and pertains more to being able to 'loosely measure' the website traffic of a particular URL. Similar to Alexa and Compete, it uses a 'trend' to give an idea of how much traffic a website gets, relative to another similar website. You may seen Google Trends in another format, as a way to find the most searched keywords for the week, like 'Angelina Jolie'.

With tools like this, you can see why Google is going to continue to dominate online advertising and search engine marketing for the foreseeable future. The others have alot of catching up to do to keep up!

Future of Print Still Being Threatened

2008-06-03T16:34:00.003-06:00

According to a report by Eloqua, entitled 'State of the Marketer', which has been widely reported, print spending will continue to decrease. 55% of 200 U.S. marketers surveyed expect to decrease their print ad spending.

In addition, a large number of these same marketers (90%) intend to continue increasing their direct online ad budgets, with 15% 'radically' increasing their online spending.

Print isn't taking it on the chin only from online spending. Direct mail spend, social media spend and mobile ad spend will be increased.

The report also goes on to say that 64% of marketers believe their marketing programs are more effective now than three years ago. This is so much the case, that marketing budgets are actually increasing, and even in the down market in the U.S., that they will maintain or increase their marketing staff.

This leads me to believe that a) online marketing and advertising is continuing to grow b) because it is more effective c) leading to higher marketing spending d) and more satisfaction with the marketing department.

It's not a foolproof hypothesis, but I bet any of you out there using online marketing (like our clients) know this is likely closer to the truth than not!

Microhoo Deal Dead

2008-05-05T17:05:00.006-06:00

Over 3 months after making a $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo, Microsoft has decided that 'clearly a deal is not to be done'. Microsoft's latest bid which upped the total price to $47.5 billion over the weekend, was rejected as inadequate.

So what does that mean? For one, it means I was wrong to expect that a 80% premium would be enough to convince Yahoo. And more importantly, it may mean that both sides didn't want to do the deal - which may be a good thing. Both sides have had over 3 months to get feedback from analysts, employees and even competitors as to the value of the merger, and if the point was to take on Google - they may have both figured out that this might have been a disaster.

From an online advertising standpoint, it will mean:

Google will get even stronger, especially in the short term
Yahoo might get better and be willing to change dramatically because of the scrutiny
Microsoft will have to grow this part of their business themselves, and get better at it.

For us and advertisers, I think this will mean we will have a more vibrant search engine marketing and online advertising industry. More competition usually means more innovation, choices and lower pricing. It will take some time to get there and it may hurt these industry giants but in the longer term, the rest of us should benefit.

One thing is certain. Online advertising and marketing is BIG, and getting bigger. If you haven't already, hitch your wagon to it.

Adwords Phishing Email

2008-04-16T08:11:00.004-06:00

I don't usually take up blog space with security alerts, but this one hopefully is the one exception for the year. There are emails being sent out with your email on them, that look very much like the emails you get from Google when your credit card expires, or is no longer accepted. This email doesn't have the usual spelling errors, or obvious bogus URLs that make it easy to detect as fake.

The email then 'instructs' you to go enter your credit card info, which of course is the reason for the email. We see a lot of these alerts and were initially concerned by them because they were real looking AND because they did go to clients with Adwords accounts.

The solution is to not click on the link provided in the email, and to go investigate via your Google Adwords account directly. Or in the case of our clients, get told to go 'see what the h*ll is going on' for them. If you have an agency like FoundPages, you probably don't have to worry, they would also get an alert if it's legitimate, and also see enough of them to know when it's bogus.

I have to admit, this is one of the cases, where I might vote for getting paper in the mail...

SEM Conference in Calgary Sep 4-5

2008-03-31T00:12:00.007-06:00

A sign that search engine marketing has matured from a novelty and become a standard, if not vitally important part of marketing in Calgary and Alberta, is that the SEM Canada conference is taking place right here in September!

I think it's the first annual, and part of the reason is Laura Callow is helping to organize it. Laura's a transplanted Calgarian and she's bringing her 'big picture' skills she has from working with some of the largest companies in the world.

The website is up and running for this event, and early bird registrations are being accepted. It promises to be an excellent event, with speakers and panels that you would normally expect to see in San Jose, New York and London.

You can bet I'll be there as FoundPages is thrilled to participate in a conference that is geared toward something it has been evangelizing for the past 5 years. It will be great to invite our clients to something that has become important enough to warrant it's own conference in Calgary.

Visit the website and registration info. As things firm up, and the date gets closer, you can expect we'll update you more.

Search Marketing Re-visited

2008-02-28T17:53:00.003-07:00

I've had comments that people would like to see tips on search engine marketing, online marketing and conversion. Well, ask and ye shall receive.

Today's tip is on ad and landing page quality for pay-per-click.

Most people think setting up a campaign is picking keywords, and setting a maximum cost per click. And that after 'buying these keywords', their ads will show and traffic will come. Nothing could be farther from the truth today. With the large number of ads competing for the same keywords, the search engines have engineered some very clever algorithms (and even human involvement) to show only the most relevant ads, and ones that have the most relevant landing pages.

This is done to promote click thru and a better user experience for the searcher. Remember, it's called pay-per-click, so they don't get paid if people don't click on your ad because it doesn't seem relevant. With that said, choosing hundreds of keywords, including the names of your competitors isn't going to work very well. You will find the bids for keywords that they don't deem relevant, will start at $6.00 per click on Google. So unless you have set your bid at $6.00, you (and others) won't even see your ad. On the other hand, you have to be a masochist to want to pay $6.00 a click for an keyword that is only mildly relevant. It is a very good deterrent to blindly buying keywords.

The quick answer to this, is to try to match your keyword to your ad, and your ad to the landing page. So if you're selling Whistler condos, your best bet would be matching keywords like 'whistler real estate' to an ad that says 'Whistler Condos For Sale', and then matched with a non-flash landing page, offering condos that are in Whistler, and mention the town site etc. If you're using Google, this will increase your Google Adwords Quality Score, and lower your cost per click, show the ad more often and increase your click thru.

Yahoo has a similar algorithm, but that use different criteria to determine quality. Be warned that they are different from Google, and what works on Yahoo (eg dynamic keyword insertion) doesn't work well on Google for quality scores, which will affect impressions.

Microsoft Buying Yahoo

2008-02-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it's finally happened. After a big dip in the markets, and Yahoo ready to layoff 1,000 employees, Microsoft made its move and offered $44.6 billion for Yahoo. That's Microsoft biggest bet yet, that the Internet advertising business is a large part of their future. Remember they spent $6 billion not long ago to buy Aquantive. So just those two now represent a $50 billion investment in online ads, search engine marketing and online marketing by MS.

You're probably thinking that this is a bid, not a done deal, which it is. I'm talking like it's a done deal because it will be - there is no way that the shareholders will turn this premium done, and there is no one else out there (save Google), who can beat this bid. And the anti-trust hurdles aren't there, because it's Google that needs to worry about that nowadays, rather than MS.

So what does this mean? Well for one, MS has finally admitted that they can't build a significant enough search and online ad business, because they are a band of techies who build software. And Yahoo, who is floundering because they depended more on display ads and portal content (like a media company), needs more Goog-like technical savvy. Does this mean it will work to catch Google? Only time will tell for sure, but I for one don't think so. The culture and mentality is too different. Googles need to be built by tech guys who ALL know they are in the advertising and media business.

Certainly Microsoft and Yahoo will both continue to do reasonably well, given the growth in online ads, search engine marketing and online media. But as for knocking down the big dog in this space - no.

I am hopeful that the combination will make the industry more competitive. Online ad pricing is starting to get expensive, and less effective. More competition will keep innovation up and costs down.

Marketers to Change Ad Agency in 2008

2008-01-21T00:21:00.000-07:00

The Chief Marketing Officer Council’s just released an annual forecast that predicts in 2008, many marketers will be changing strategies to focus more on online activity. As a result they found, will also see many marketers changing their advertising agencies.

Online marketing activity, such as email campaigns and search-engine marketing, will attract a larger part of the budget this year as marketers continue to focus on online strategies. "A lot of research we've done shows that web is the top priority in terms of brand, customer engagement, insight, and it is becoming a bigger area of focus," said Dave Murray, executive vice president of the CMO Council.

There is resistance by the agencies to adopt fundamental online strategies, leading Deloitte Consulting, the sponsors of the survey to say: "The CMOs tell us that the agencies are not delivering.".

I'm reminded of the 'ostrich head in the sand' metaphor that I learned years ago. Some of these agencies are sticking their head in the sand, hoping that online marketing is just a fad that will go away if they ignore it long enough. With online advertising overtaking TV advertising in markets like the U.K., these agencies need to wake up before they find they are one of the 45% of advertising agencies that are going to be dropped by their clients in 2008, according to this survey.

All they need to do is to hookup with the new guys on the block, like FoundPages, to keep this fate from happening. Have a great (online) marketing year!

Late Web Marketing?

2007-11-14T17:49:00.000-07:00

A recent survey of 120 senior marketing executives found that getting Internet marketing campaigns launched on time isn't an easy thing to do. That's not surprising to me, because ours are as well - and we have the tools and skills in-house! It's so popular that there are not enough resources to execute all the campaigns that are required. Yet most companies do not spend enough time or money to move these forward. Talk about Catch-22.

While 59% of the the marketers agree that Internet marketing is critical to their strategies, only 30% of planned campaigns launched on time. Major reasons included slow internal approval processes, web content management systems, and backlogs in the I.T. department (go figure). And only 17% found that the process of updating their website 'quick and easy'.

More importantly, the negative impact was that new business inquiries were down as well as customer satisfaction. Other impact was as follows:
- 35% said the delay impacted their web marketing
- 30% said this impacted brand image
- 20% said employee satisfaction was affected.

“As the Web picks up speed daily, there are internal forces at work that are slowing it down,” said Erik Aeyelts Averink, president, Products & Solutions for SDL Tridion, who commissioned the research.

Clearly, the web as a marketing tool is becoming more and more important each day. But web marketing requires skills, approvals and tools that are not firmly in place at most organizations. We know that at FoundPages and ActiveConversion, because we deal with it all the time. A large portion of our time is just getting things approved and put onto a website, or to decide on content for an email campaign. So much our time is just project management to get things moving.

I'm particular interested in the fact that 59% say that web or online marketing is 'critical'. 5 years ago, this number would have been below 5%. It's over 10x more important today. Online marketing is not a 'nice to have' anymore. It's essential to every business, and more importantly, available to every business today.

Don't leave your business without it! And don't let 'internal forces' keep you from getting it done.

Google Makes Move Into TV

2007-10-25T17:40:00.000-06:00

Google really is ready to take over the world. They are now making a move into tracking television advertising. Apparently it has been getting rave reviews from media buyers during their beta testing with the DISH network.

Dubbed Google TV, this is a partnership between Google and Nielsen, that is shaking up Madison Avenue. Google's strategy involves having a better way to measure audiences for ads on television, and then finding better ways to direct particular ads to particular viewers.

This future means you will (someday) see ads that are more relevant for you. By knowing what demographic your family falls into, advertisers will be able to target ads to you, which you will be more willing to view (and NOT skip with TIVO-like devices), AND it will make the ad inventory more valuable, not to mention a better return on investment for the advertiser.

For example, if you are male, married and over 50, with kids that have left the house, ads that pertain to vacations, financial planning, erectile dysfunction ;-), and retirement are probably more relevant than ads about cereal, pampers or bras.

The type of TV show used to be the indicator for ads before, but shows like Survivor or Dancing with the Stars, appeal to a wide range of audiences. Anyway, I'm sure you get the 'picture'.

What's even more interesting is how 'Googl-sen' will shake up the TV advertising world. Madison Ave in NY meets west coast Googleplex geeks. Suits vs Sandals.

What an idea for a reality show!

30% Increase in Online Ad Spend Expected from Local Search and Online Video

2007-10-04T18:15:00.000-06:00

According to a forecast from ZenithOptimedia, marketers should expect to see a 30% increase in online ad spend in local search and video. This will help online advertising go over $33 billion next year. And by 2009 online ad spending will account for almost 10% of total ad spend worldwide.

While this is going on, they predict that newspaper ad spend will decline by 29%, with magazines and radio declining as well. Only TV and outdoor advertising will have small increases in the traditional marketing side.

This doesn't go near as far as what Steve Ballmer at Microsoft was quoted recently as saying. He stated that sometime in the next decade, all advertising will be digital. He's predicting that as much as 25% of Microsoft's revenue will come from advertising, and likely with ad-supported Microsoft products.

30% per year is a big number. That means, the spending will double every 2.1 years, which means maybe Microsoft isn't so crazy after all. We use online ads, in addition to helping people use it, and we can honestly say it is by far the lowest cost, most effective medium that our clients use. If you haven't tried it, you'd better, or you might be using a horse and buggy when everyone else is using a new fangled horseless carriage known as the automobile.

Yahoo Stays in the Online Ad Game

2007-09-10T18:25:00.000-06:00

Yahoo became the latest Internet search engine to make a big move into online advertising networks. By buying BlueLithium for $300 million in cash, Yahoo counters somewhat similar moves by Google (DoubleClick) and Microsoft (Aquantive).

So who is BlueLithium and what do they do you ask? BlueLithium has a user base of 120 million, and has the 5th largest advertising network on the Internet. In other words, 120 million users visit the website network they have strung together from many hundreds of highly trafficked websites.

What this means to an online marketer, is that the big 3 search engines, are also the big 3 online ad networks for display ads, contextual ads etc. Just as FoundPages has evolved from mostly search marketing to online marketing, the search engines have as well.

Does that diminish search engine marketing? Absolutely not. Search is still usually more effective than any other online marketing and is our calling card. However, online advertising is a natural follow on from search marketing and uses similar talents, tools and assets.

We have found in some cases than contextual advertising is more effective than even search advertising. Contextual ads are displayed beside related articles, blogs, videos and even email (like Gmail). This is similar to traditional advertising whereby an ad is 'placed' articles that will be welcomed by the audience reading the article. eg. ads on 'victoria condos' beside an article on retiring in Victoria.

You can expect to hear more from us (and Google, Microsoft and Yahoo) about online ads - all types of them.

Ever Dance the Google Dance?

2007-08-07T14:05:00.000-06:00

For those who know Google well like us, the Google Dance is not a dance at all. It's when Google changes their ranking algorithm significantly to try to get better search results on a Google search. Google calls it 'improving the users experience'. This comes along only 1-3 times a year and is referred to as the Google Dance and is not advertised in advance.

As a result, it's common to see a dramatic loss of search engine traffic if it is not adjusted for. For companies like www.Answers.com, this meant a loss of over 28% of their 3 million visitors a month. That's 840,000 visitors or about 30,000 per day, so you can see how this can be a really big deal for some companies. Assuming that each search visitor is worth at least 50 cents per, that can add up to a lot of money if it lasts a month or more.

As we like to say around here, Google keyword rankings are not a god-given right, and are not static. So once we get you there, that doesn't it will stay unless we continually monitor and make adjustment when necessary. SEO (search engine optimization) is not a one-time event but an ongoing process, across all the search engines, not just Google.

The algorithm changes actually happen throughout the year, but the term Google Dance is reserved for the bigger changes. The small changes will move your listing a page or two whereas GD can put you on the 10th page or worse. Keep in mind, it can also move your listing up as well. I sometimes think this is Google's way of leveling the playing field every now and again. Not necessarily a bad thing...

BTW, there really is a Google 'dance'. I've been to it, and the Googlers really dance at the Googleplex. Free food and drink (of course) abound, but with entertainment like arcade games, volleyball, live music etc. Takes place in August usually...

Special posting: Google PrintAds

2007-07-18T18:17:00.000-06:00

We don't usually blog this frequently, but yesterday's announcement that Google PrintAds is now available merited special attention.

PrintAds is just like it sounds, Google driven ads, that appear in print, instead of online. Although PrintAds has been around since November 2006, to select high volume advertisers, it is now available to all Google Adwords advertisers.

This means you can now place ads in 225 'quality' newspapers in the U.S., using geography, circulation, ad size, section (local, business, sports), and of course day of week. One thing you won't be able to do yet is place the ad on a contextual basis, or by keyword. Contextual refers to ads that are placed next to articles that are related (eg. condo ad next to article on condo living).

There is even a bid component to it, in that the newspaper can reject the ad or come back with a counteroffer.

This is newsworthy because Google as you may know, already has radio inventory, and you can see how their ad network is now evolving into a total advertising network. The fact that 98% of the newspapers that piloted the PrintAds system have chosen to stay in the network tells us that the newspapers see value in this.

This is a breakthrough as far as mentality. Newspapers have been fighting online adverting for awhile now (and losing). It's far better for them to embrace change and benefit from it, then to keep believing that motorized carriages will never replace the horse and buggy.

The best part of this is advertisers are reporting an increase in sales and inquiries of around 20%. So if the ads are priced right, it can have ROI that may approximate online.

Online advertising rates: Rip-off or Deal of the Century?

2007-07-16T16:46:00.000-06:00

Just read an interesting article from MediaBrains, one of our online advertising networks, titled 'Online advertising rates: Rip-off or Deal of the Century?'. Basically, it suggests that advertisers have a perception that because online doesn't have printing, paper and distribution costs, it should cost a fraction of traditional advertising. It then argues that online ads should cost the same or even more, because the hard costs are replaced by different costs, such as web designers, search engine optimization, web analytics, real-time reports, spam compliance, servers etc.

Our take on this is that it falls in the category of Deal of the Century. Consider the facts:
- online ad spending is 10% of a typical marketing budget, but has 46% impact (based on time online)
- it reaches buyers with a level of efficiency and measurability that is unmatched
- growth ranges between 30-40% (showing that it works)
- it gets interested buyers to your website better than any other method (more clicks per dollar).

Imagine, advertising that helps brand you, tells you if its working, gets you direct response, and can almost instantly be distributed to a targeted market. It's almost too good to be true. To us, that makes it a steal of a deal.

U.S. online advertising spend will reach $152.3 billion in 2007, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). A significant increase from 2006, so besides the market growth, there has been increases in online advertising rates. Google's rates alone have increased 30% on average with no drop off in demand. It seems the market agrees that it is a steal of a deal.

MediaBrains sums it up with 'The moral of the story is, don’t expect online advertising rates to decline. Rather, make sure you’re getting the best possible results from your efforts. Embrace the medium that opened a new channel for reaching prospects and forever changed marketing as we know it.'

We couldn't agree more. Instead of comparing the costs, compare the effectiveness.