So then, below is a hodgepodge of newer features and unique opportunities within Google Adwords that you should be taking advantage of if it’s right for your business.    

1. You have seen some ads with a small form for email address submissions?  This is called Communications extensions, and is still in beta. 

NuSpark Marketing is approved to test these with clients.  Your ads can have 5 options for lead generation:

• Get offers
• Subscribe to newsletter
• Subscribe
• Get updates
• Get alerts

 These are certainly unique ways to build a customer list.

2. You’ve seen those Site links at the bottom of Google ads that appear within the top 3 positions?  Well, if you have a special offer just for mobile users, you can now set up a site link just for mobile.

3. With the new enhanced Adwords, you can now promote offers within your ads if you are a brick and mortar store.  Create and promote your offer, Google creates a landing page coupon, for audiences to redeem in-store, and viola; you can measure in-store offer conversions from Google!

4. You’ve seen seller ratings in ads, and wonder how they got there? 

Ratings come from Google Shopping, which aggregates reviews from sources throughout the web.  When you reach a certain minimum, ratings appear.  Here’s link with more info on seller ratings.

5. Have you seen some e-commerce ads with detailed listings on some of their products like below?

That’s called Product Extensions, but you need to have a Google Merchant account set up with a Google Shopping Feed. By adding specific brand, or other product attributes as a filtered target, you can create increased engagement with your product pay-per-click ads.

6. I’m sure you know about retargeting; where Google (and other platforms) target ads to you, typically within 30 days, of you visiting a website or landing page, and not converting.  Retargeting campaigns bring you back to a website and has proven very effective for my clients. 

Well, here’s something new, called Similar Audiences.  With enough data, Google looks at the browsing history of your retargeted audiences, and attempts to find similar audiences who best match those browsing habits of your website visitors being retargeted.  What this means is, the reach of your message can grow significantly, if you utilize this retargeting option.

7. Finally, there is a column within the Adwords management platform called Conversion Value.  This is the value of a conversion. 

If you’re a lead generation site, you can enter in the set-up (below) what the value of a conversion is, so that you can track ROI.  If you’re a simple e-commerce site, you can enter the average cost-per-sale.  However, if you are e-commerce, you know your products have various values, so a generic conversion value just won’t do.  See below is where I add conversion value.

In this case, if you want to measure dynamically generated conversion values,  you’re going to need your developer to add some custom code to your site, depending on the language of your e-commerce platform. Google explains how to set up conversions on a dynamically-generated website  here.  Platforms like Magento have Adwords conversion integration so that specific conversion values CAN be tracked with Google Adwords.

So this is just a sample of what is available on the Google Adwords platform, covering search and display.  The options keep us on our toes as we continually look to optimize campaign performance.  What new or unique features do you like, or have questions on?

With this new marketing option, advertisers can now promote certain tweets based on keywords that users are searching for on Twitter, on keywords people use in their tweets, or based on keywords found in tweets users recently engaged with or retweeted.  When a match is made, your promoted tweet has an opportunity to win placement (like an Adwords auction) either in a user’s Twitter stream or in the search results (for when someone searches Twitter).

Twitter keyword advertising offers “real-time” targeting for advertisers, as ads are targeted to users within minutes of the user tweeting or engaging with a tweet about a certain keyword/topic.  Keep in mind, pricing is based on “pay-per-engagement” meaning a click, or a retweet, or the action of gaining a follower will charge your account.

Below is a video of how it works. (click bottom right to enlarge)

Strategy for Advertisers

Always determine your business objectives, and if you’re going to test promoted tweets, have clear goals.  Consider the following examples:

Retail

• Business:  Flower Shop

Keyword target examples:  gifts, buy flowers, Valentine, presents, date tonight, going to funeral

Message:  promote a special offer; click the tweet to a landing page with the offer; print a coupon or use a promotional code for online purchase

e-Commerce

• Business: Ski Gear

Keyword target examples: going skiing, ski equipment, online skis, buy skis, ski resorts, ski gear

Message: promote an online offer; exclusive to Twitter people; utilize a promotional code in the tweet and landing page

Lead Generation

• Business:  CRM

Keyword target examples: manage contacts, new CRM, Salesforce.com, lead management, sales tools, sales management

Message:  Promote a 30-day free trial, and include a short benefit of your product within your tweet. Generate leads from your unique landing page.

With any marketing campaign, any tweet links should be tagged for analytics, and be able to measure conversions, cost-per-conversion, and ROI.  This is still brand new, so feel free to test.  If your audience is using Twitter to communicate or learn about your potential products/services, this may be a viable marketing option.

What do you think of Promoted Tweets by keyword?  Are you planning to test?  Feel free to contact me to discuss strategy.

Ask that question 50 times, and I am sure you’ll get 50 unique answers.  Despite the wealth of data and measurement tools available, there still needs to be some clarity on what makes a successful business page, and how you optimize your content for success. Like Twitter and Google+, there are two key categories of metrics you need to understand:

• Engagement: Is your content being noticed; and when it’s noticed, does it influence audiences to engage with it, whether it’s a like, comment, share, or click?  When people engage in your content, more people get to see those interactions (viral reach), which can build even more engagement, and build more page likes?  The result?  The total reach of your messaging increases and the more likely people will pay attention to any promotional messages.
• Traffic & Sales:  As stated above, as the reach of your messages increase, the more likely audiences may respond to any promotional messages or clicks to your website or landing pages.  If you have any special offers or promotions, that’s when you take advantage of promoted posts and advertising.  You do want a portion of your posts directing audiences to your website as long as the post update is creative and compelling in order to give audiences a reason to click.

The purpose of this particular post is to not review all of the specific metrics available on Facebook Insights, but instead to showcase what to do with those metrics in order to create a metrics dashboard where you can evaluate the results of your Facebook messaging, and set the stage to making improvements.

As stated, there are many fine Facebook analytics tools you can pay for, and they give many insights into your Facebook business page management.  However, I use my own custom dashboard (below) because it’s my preferred method of reporting results to my clients.  My goal as a marketing consultant is to report on trends of KPIs, and recommend optimizations, for any media strategy.  The majority of the data you have; just export page and post data from your Facebook Insights dashboard.

For my custom metrics dashboard, I export the last two months of data; the month I am reporting on, and the previous month’s data.  I like to show trends and growth.  Because I am measuring post engagement, it’s important to avoid paid reach data, because that can skew the results of your regular posting metrics.  Promoted Posts and Facebook Offers are important paid strategies to utilize, but again, we’re measuring  our overall content and fan page growth strategy, so when possible, exclude paid reach numbers.

I then gather the metrics that are important to me and my analysis.  Ask any social media consultant, and they would probably pick different ones; it all depends on the goals of the page, and what metrics mean most to your clients.  I gather for each month:

• New Likes
• Lost Likes
• Lifetime PTAT- the number of people who liked, shared, or commented on posts
• Lifetime Post Organic Reach- the number of people, page likes or non likes, exposed to your content
• Lifetime Post Viral Reach- the number of friends of page likes exposed to your content
• Lifetime Post Engaged Users- the number of total engagements with your posts, including clicks on links, images, or videos
• Lifetime Post Total Reach- the total number of people who saw your posts
• Lifetime Page Likes
• Total Posts

From this data, I can produce the dashboard with the goal to measure the trends of the Facebook post activity.  This is what I measure:

Virality Rate:

Formula:  People Talking About This/ Total Reach

Insight:  Of all the people exposed to my content, what is the rate of the sum of post likes, comments, and shares.  When people engage with the posts this way, their friends see it, and the viral reach increases.  The higher the percentage, the more effective your posts are.

Engaged User Rate

Formula: Engaged Users/Total Reach

Insight: It’s one thing for people to talk about your posts; but if your posts are designed to attract clicks, that’s true content engagement.  An engaged user can like, comment, or share, but can also click a link, or view a photo or video.  Post clicks (or consumptions) are not seen by friends, but do give you clues to what kinds of content attract high engagement.  When users are engaged, your content is working, your branding is emphasized, and you get more clicks to your website.

Post Engagement Rate

Formula: PTAT per day/Page Likes

Insight: Where the above metrics are based on reach, the post engagement rate is based on the number of page likes or fans you have.  This metric gives you a measure of how engaged your fans are with your posts.  If your post engagement rate is decreasing, your content is not engaging. Time to tweak the post strategy.

Numbers:

Sometimes you just like to see overall growth.  Rather than tracking your growth of page likes (which includes advertising sources), I prefer to show reach growth, as reach growth is determined by the quantity AND the quality of your posts. 

Organic Reach: The number of unique people who were exposed to your content on their news feeds, ticker, or your page.  This number includes fans and non-fans.  The more engaged your posts are, your edgerank increases, and that mean your posts show higher in newsfeeds, which also increases exposure. 

Viral Reach: Very simply, when fans like, comment, or share a post, their friends see it; the ultimate word-of-mouth metric.  Viral reach measures only friends of fans.  The more compelling your content is, the more friends of fans see it, and your viral reach increases.

Website Traffic:  Very simply, are people who are users of your page and content interested in your products or services by clicking to your website.  Taken from Google analytics, you should always be monitoring website traffic from social media sources.

Here’s an image of my Facebook metrics dashboard, developed on Microsoft Excel.  If you’d like a copy of it, please click the image and download it.  At the end of the day, your goal is to continue to see growth in the metrics over the long haul. 

Please let me know what you think of the dashboard.  I am very open to comments, or other formulas people use to measure their Facebook business page results.  How do you use Facebook Insights?  Do you use your own dashboard?  What’s your favorite tool?

Text Ad Copy

The perfect landing page means nothing if your initial copy doesn’t generate valuable visitors. Many pay-per-click campaigns fail at this first step by aiming for generic keywords or by aiming for long tail keywords without properly developing copy that targets and entices the people who would make that search. Weeding out low-converting clicks can also greatly improve profit—any campaign that fails to utilize negative keywords is inevitably wasting at least some marketing funds.

Two factors should be considered in generating your ad copy and selecting your keywords:

1. Target Demographic: Word selection and the tone of your ad should take into account the visitors you’re targeting and the nature of your landing page. High energy copy that excites impulse buyers may work wonders when targeting consumers, but that same copy may lose cautious business professions looking for neutral, detailed information. Split testing is vital for feeling out your audience and determining the highest value approach.

2. Buying Cycle: Someone searching for ‘cheap GeneriCamera 60a’ requires a very different approach from someone searching ‘best camera for beginning photographer’. Understanding were in the buying cycle your clicks are coming from plays heavily into how you should approach your copy. There is no point advertising bargain pricing or bonus items if your audience doesn’t know what they want to buy, and there is no point sending someone who wants to buy right this second to a review or introduction to the product.

Landing Pages

Once you know you are bringing valuable visitors in and what they are looking for, you can begin to tailor your landing pages for high conversion rates.

There are several things to carefully consider when creating your landing pages:

1. Ad Copy: Targeting demographics and your visitors’ position in the buying cycle are as important in landing pages as they are in your text ads. Medical professionals looking to buy expensive training courses or equipment need hard facts and endorsement from their fellows or trustworthy agencies. Impulse buyers need to be given an endless stream of reasons to be excited and presented with numerous opportunities to buy.

2. Layout: This is perhaps the most frequently overlooked aspect of landing pages. Distracting your visitors with material that doesn’t work to convert them does no good. A visitor late in the buying cycle is likely best targeted with a landing page that offers them only information on the product they’re ready to buy and the opportunity to buy it—removing sidebars and links to other parts of your website can result in greatly improved conversion rates. If, on the other hand, you are looking to convert a repeat customer, you must make sure your website entices returns with by presenting a clean layout and promoting the benefits of converting.

3. Why Should They Convert: If you’re offering a product or service or information available elsewhere, convincing your visitors to take your offer becomes vital. You must offer something competing products, vendors, or information sources cannot—this can be discounted pricing, free additional products, or services unavailable elsewhere.

Final Word

Determining the ideal copy, layout, and offers for high pay-per-click conversion rates will always require trial and error and careful analysis of statistics. Constant split testing will offer you the most efficient path to success.

We’ve always had content; back in the day, we called it copy writing   We were advertising professionals; not content marketers.  Clients wanted emails and phone calls.  We were about ads and collateral; with the occasional white paper that publications mailed us (remember BRC cards?)  Then came the website and the growth of email along with the World Wide Web. 

Think about all we have to write:

• Social Media: blog posts and infographics, social profiles and posts, tweets and updates
• Lead Generation: white papers, case studies, webinars, slideshares, eBooks, landing pages
• On-site SEO: web pages, page titles, meta descriptions
• Off-site SEO: guest blog outreach letters, guest blog articles, online press releases
• Pay-Per-Click: Ads
• Lead Nurturing: emails, more helpful articles and webinars! 
• Other content: Video scripts, podcast scripts, powerpoints

The power of the written word is undeniable.  Words persuade and convince; they also inform and educate.  Like any marketing strategy, you have to have a plan for content; I’m not going to go into content planning (see my ebooks), but your team must have a budget for the quantity AND the quality of the content.  Yes it’s a challenge.

I have two new clients that have budgeted content; for SEO and social.

• Client One:  4 website articles, 4 blog posts, 4 guest blog posts (for backlinks), 3 video scripts per month (for site and YouTube)
• Client Two: 8 blog posts, 2 guest blog posts (for SEO), one white paper, all per month

 Our goals with content:

• Sound like an expert; write great content (with a passion) and focus on the needs of our audiences
• Be Strategic; have a plan that educates and persuades
• Commitment; great content doesn’t stop;  it continually is written, published, and promoted

Every piece of content you write or your firm writes; ask these two questions:

• Why should your audience care
• Why should your audience share

Then proceed.  ‘nuff said.

There are many marketing automation systems out there that can help firms manage and nurture leads into sales.  MindMatrix is one the platforms I recommend to SMBs. It has unique features, especially with collateral messaging, that you should pay attention to.  I recently caught up with Andy Carlton, Director, Channel Sales and Business Development at MindMatrix. Andy Carlton is a leading expert in digital, Saas, and marketing technologies for over the past 20 years. He is in charge of building a vast channel network and creating a comprehensive partner ecosystem in the marketing automation space.

Paul: Tell me about MindMatrix and what makes you so unique in the marketplace.

Sure, Paul.  MindMatrix was developed with the needs of both marketing and sales in mind.  At the end of the day, it is marketing’s job to produce the kind of qualified leads that sales people can properly be expected to close.  Sales wants leads but more importantly, they want good leads and MindMatrix is set up to deliver them.

In addition to tools to ensure marketing sends only qualified leads to sales, we   have established some unique tools for salespeople to be able to communicate with each prospect during the sales process.  A sales rep can get access to marketing approved collateral and messaging to be able to have meaningful 1-1 dialogues and deeper engagement during the sales process. One example:  being able to produce, on the fly, a customized and personalized sales proposal.  Once a proposal is completed, a sales rep can send by email, and then track whether or not the prospect opened the email and/or clicked on the proposal.  In fact, our system will track the complete digital footprint.  Consequently, the sales rep is armed with valuable information allowing her to effectively measure engagement throughout the sales process and adjust the sales approach at each step.  And, marketing is happy because it maintains brand consistency in every piece of collateral.

The uniqueness of our product is combining marketing and sales activities all on one unified platform.  We believe this achieves tighter alignment.

Paul: How does this translate to the SMB market?  Is this out of reach for them?

The small to medium sized business has much of the same needs that larger ones have and now with the emergence of cloud based software, it has become even more affordable and accessible.  They may not need all of the functionality of a robust marketing to sales automation platform but there are some basic elements that can make any SMB successful.

Some of these features include:  the ability to do simple email campaigns with drag and drop content, creating a social media page and automating content placement on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, automating blog content, tracking inbound (known and anonymous) site traffic, and measuring the effectiveness of your content.  A lot of the tools I’m talking about are very simple to utilize.

I always stress that in any organization, content development should be an ongoing strategy.  At MindMatrix, we can leverage our partner network to assist in content creation, among other things.  In some cases, SMB’s just don’t want to hire internally for the skill sets that are necessary to be successful.  That’s where an outside marketing partner can make all the difference.

Paul: When you talk about marketing and sales alignment, what do you mean?

Let’s first consider the status quo.  Most vendors talk about marketing and sales alignment in terms of triggering a sales qualified lead to a CRM system.  Clearly, that’s important.  But that isn’t “alignment.”  Alignment is the effective coordination of the missions of marketing and sales. Consider these numbers.  Even with the prevalence of marketing automation, marketing departments are still sending  50% of all leads generated over the fence to sales.  It’s an extremely optimistic notion that a majority of those leads will end in a closed deal—at least within any realistic time period!  Statistics tell that up to 75% of all leads are not ready to buy.  So, marketing has a lot of work to do on the nurturing side.  In the meantime, too much time is being squandered unrealistic leads. 

On top of time spent on unlikely leads, sales faces an additional problem.     Salespeople proceed to spend up to 40% of their time preparing buyer-specific sales materials.  Consider this:  a sales rep with $1,000,000 in annual sales can theoretically increase their revenue by $170,833 just by recapturing the 17% of “lost” time.  So, sales people need to be armed with the right content, messaging, and assets to help them sell.  Spending too much time on repurposing –or even asking marketing to produce what they need–is a waste of precious selling time.  Companies need to get their sales people selling at maximum efficiency.

Paul: What challenges do you see continuing between sales and marketing teams?

Marketing automation is no magic bullet.  It cannot solve the divide between the two unless it is used properly.  Sales and marketing teams will need to destroy old walls and come closer together.  Revenue is the goal, even though marketing has traditionally not been involved in revenue accountability.  I believe that is changing, and we have designed metrics to make accountability possible.

Paul: Lastly, what new things can we expect to see coming down the pike from MindMatrix?

We are excited about the explosive growth and innovation at MindMatrix. Some of the new features we’ll be releasing will center around channel sales enablement, better reporting capabilities and dynamic content delivery. 

Our goal is to empower both marketing and sales teams to drive revenue. 

Summary

I am a reseller of MindMatrix, and together with the content strategy we put together that drives leads and sales via the lead nurturing process, it makes for a nice partnership.  If you’d like to learn more about marketing automation, drop me a line. 

Google Analytics is an amazing tool that can track all types of data related to website usage; from visitor metrics to content metrics and conversion metrics.  By analyzing the data properly and gathering insights, you can make strategic decisions on your marketing strategy, content strategy, and conversion strategy.  This post is not a primer on basic Google analytics, but a look at some key custom reports and metrics that can help you strategize, with a focus on b2b lead generation websites that focus on conversions.

Before we get started, I just wanted to set the record straight regarding definitions, since I am always asked. 

Visits

This is a pure visit to your site, triggered by the Google Analytics tracking code. Everything visitors do on your site is tracked within that visit, until they leave or the session expires (after 30 minutes of inactivity).

New and Returning Visits

Through the use of cookies, Google Analytics will know if a user has been to your site on that browser before – and if so, will track them as a Returning Visit. If no information is available in the cookies, the visitor is tracked as a New Visit. If the cookie that tracks this has expired or been deleted then the visit will be considered as a New Visit. Additionally, a user using an alternate browser or computer for another visit will also be tracked as a New Visit.

Visitors

Analytics measures both visits and visitors in your account. Visits represent the number of individual sessions initiated by all the visitors to your site. If a user is inactive on your site for 30 minutes or more, any future activity is attributed to a new session. Users that leave your site and return within 30 minutes are counted as part of the original session. The number of visitors will always be lower than the number of visits to a site; this is because some visitors will visit more than once.

Goals and Conversions

The first thing we’ll review are goals.  Goals and conversions mean two different things. A goal is simply a defined metric you’d like to track, whether it be a view of a page, content that is downloaded, or a multi-page interaction such as average time on site or pages per visit.  A conversion is the completion of a defined goal or a transaction.  For lead generation sites, a conversion is a completed activity that results in a user submitting an email address in exchange for content, trials, demos, quotes, or a request for more information from sales.

Google Analytics allows you to set up 20 goals; 4 groups of 5 goals each.  Before getting started, you need to make a list of conversion activity (email submission) on your website, with an accompanying “thank you page” that verifies the form submissions.  Each unique conversion should have a unique “thank you” page, so that you can track each specific conversion.  These ‘thank you” page URLs are the page URLs you will be tracking on your website (as well as any pay-per-click or online advertising landing page or microsite).  Speaking of landing pages; each landing page should be tracked as a separate profile within your analytics account, with its own conversion goals.

So Group One should list the “Thank You pages” for up to 5 of the most important conversion goals, such as:

• Contact Us forms, or general inquiries
• Registration forms (gated content downloads).
• Trial/demo requests
• Webinar/event signups

Again, all of these conversion goals are what brings leads into your funnel, where further marketing and lead nurturing can begin.

Group Two can be for event tracking on your website.  An event is a click on your website that doesn’t necessarily lead to another page view.  Event tracking allows you to measure content on your website; and decide which kinds of content are more engaging or more useful to your visitors.  Types of events you can track are:

• Video plays.  If you have a number of videos on your website, you can track which ones are viewed most, and which ones are played all the way through as compared to paused.
• PDF downloads.  For any ungated content available as PDFs, you can measure downloads. This is a great way to determine what topics are most popular, and can give you insight to developing future content topics.
• Podcasts.  Event tracking allows you to measure podcast listens and downloads
• Text and button Links.  If your site includes links to other websites or domains, such as clicks to associations or questionnaires, you can track these outbound links.

Event tracking requires some additional code on each page where the event is.  Google has provided a detailed look at how to incorporate event tracking into your website.  There are also WordPress analytics plug-ins that can assist here as well.  I also use an analytics add-on called SkyGlue that can also measure events as well as site visitors.  Check out SkyGlue.

Group Three can be used for general site engagement metrics goals if you wish to track the overall site performance, such as pages per visit or average time per visit.

Custom Reports

Now that you have proper goals set up, you’ll want to track those goals along with some key analytics data.  Here are some reports that can provide you with some valuable marketing insights:

Traffic Sources Conversion

What Traffic sources and landing pages gave me the most conversions and best conversion rates?

This is a custom report that tracks overall site conversions as well as a specific conversion, called Check Out.  For each report I am tracking the number of conversions as well as conversion rate.  For dimension,  the top level measure is source/medium.  For example, “Google” is a source, “organic” and “cpc (cost per click or paid search)” are mediums.  A medium is the type of traffic visitors come from; sources are specific websites (Google, Bing, specific websites, email, or general direct URL input via a browser).  Once I click on the source/medium in the report, I can see which landing pages generated conversions.  Below is an example of a landing page conversion report.

Outcome:  Determine which pages perform well; lead to conversions; and which pages need optimization.

Referral Pages

What Referring Sites (including social, email, and any website that has my link- a measure of SEO) give me the most conversions and best conversion rates?

This report tracks all those sources minus search engines and direct browser visits (audiences typing in URLs or clicking bookmarked sites).  It’s useful to see where traffic and conversions come from. You can measure back links from SEO, guest blog links, social media sites, banner ads on enewsletters or websites, etc.  With proper tagging, this data can be sliced and diced further.  You may wish to track ad networks, specific websites, videos, pre-roll, etc.  It’s all here, as long as links from these sites are tagged using Google’s URL tag builder and you properly tag external links.  Programs like Doubleclick can help this task if you’re buying multiple ad networks or DSPs, but you need to manually tag links for more granular referral link analysis.

For the custom report setup as above, notice the filter, denoting that all I want to see in the source report are referral mediums.

So here’s a brief example of a referral conversion report, showing traffic from external website links or ads.

Outcome:  Determine what sources drive visits and conversions; analyzing banner ads, email, social media sites, traffic from directories or guest blog activity, and more.

Keyword Conversions- SEO

What organic unbranded keywords give me the most conversions and best conversion rates?

My goal with this report is to show organic keywords, or search engine terms brought traffic to the site.  Again I am showing total goal completions and conversion rates, but you can also select specific conversion types from the drop down menus.  My filters selected here:  I want to show only organic mediums; I want to not show “not provided” and I want to not show a word within my client’s company name, in this case “Perry”. Therefore my report will only show unbranded keywords.

So here’s the report- showing Google/organic as well as the keyword (which you can see either by clicking on Google/organic in the report, or selecting the keyword dimension as a secondary dimension). The term “used process equipment” has the highest conversion rate.

Outcome:  Determine which keywords you should focus on for website and ongoing search engine optimization, by reviewing keyword conversion rates.

Pay-Per-Click Analytics

Is Pay-per-click advertising performing well; and which keywords are most effective?

This sample report measures visits, new visitor percentage, total conversions and conversion rate again, plus also bounce rate to see which terms aren’t relevant.  You can select many metrics that are available, but for this report, I chose the above.  The dimensions allow 5 drilldowns.  So, first I click campaigns to see campaign performance, then ad groups, to match type, to keyword, and finally matches search query.  A matched search query is the actual term audiences used to find my pay-per-click ad.

Here’s an example of the final dimension; the matched search query report, which allows me to see which specific terms within my ad groups actually generated conversions.  If these terms were profitable, but also competitive, I may consider increasing bids for terms with high conversion rates.

Outcome:  Which keywords and terms had best conversion rates.  By the way, with this report, you can also add a cost-per-conversion metric, and judge which ad groups and keywords were most cost-efficient.

Visitor Conversions

Are you interested in conversion rate by number of visitor sessions, or how many pages visitors view?

This first custom report, comparing visit counts with conversions, will tell you if multiple site visits affect conversion rates. If you have a loyal blog following, or promote lots of content via social channels, you may see some trends

This second custom report compares conversion rates with how many pages audiences visit on your site. The goal here is to gauge where more engaged audiences convert better.

Here are the results:  Page depth ranked by goal completions.  The below example shows higher conversion rates when audiences view 7 or more pages.  That makes sense, doesn’t it?

Well, you can spend hours configuring, analyzing, and making recommendations that affect marketing, media, and keyword strategy.  By creating custom reports with Google Analytics, and analyzing the right data, you can perform true marketing and website optimization.   This is just a taste of the kinds of reports you can make, and save them throughout all of your website profiles.

Are you analyzing the right data?  Maybe I can help you.

With so much marketing noise out there talking about inbound marketing, social media, and SEO, sometimes we forget one mission-critical component to marketing strategy; advertising.  I have recently been engaged with some regional b2b firms, and have been asked to help generate leads and conversions.  The two firms have similarities:

• They only wish to target regional markets due to competition and limited sales staff size
• They market very specific services; services that aren’t searched for on Google all that much
• They wish to use content to generate awareness toward audiences not in the purchase mode yet.

Targeting specific industries and specific geography does have its challenges from a scale and efficiency standpoint, but nevertheless if you’re creative enough, and have done thorough research on your target audiences and what mediums they consume, there are opportunities.

Generally, any marketing plan must address two types of audiences:

• Those not currently in the market for your service, but are potential leads if messaging addresses their needs. This process is called Outbound Marketing, and covers advertising, trade shows, and direct marketing.
• Those in the market; This marketing process is called Inbound Marketing, and covers paid search, search engine optimization, and social media. Be there when your prospects are looking; or lose a lead.

For firms that target regionally, SEO and social do bring concerns, because search engine listings and social chatter are national and international marketing strategies.  Just something to be aware of if you target Pennsylvania, and get a lead from Michigan…

Lead Generation Overview

A lead generation engine encompasses the following elements.

• Websites and landing pages.  However audiences find your website, they need to be convinced of your solutions. Once they are persuaded, visitors become inquiries.  Relevant content, a professional look, and easy-to-follow navigation are the key elements to an optimal lead-generation website that converts prospects.
• Content Strategy. At the beginning of any lead generation is the message.  Do your solutions embrace the needs of the target audience?  Do the words; the tone; and the context of what’s written allow prospects to engage further?  Does your brand resonate with your prospects?  What is your value proposition and your points of differentiation? These and other issues need to be addressed before a tactical plan is implemented. 
• Outbound and Inbound tactics.  Development of a sound mix of tactics that encompass both outbound and inbound processes in order to reach the key decision makers.
• Nurture Strategy.  Once inquiries enter your “funnel” many are not ready to buy yet.  They need more education and evidence before contacting sales and beginning the closing process.  Therefore content not just convinces visitors to become inquires, but also those inquiries to become sales opportunities. 

From an outbound marketing standpoint, find out all of the print and digital portals that cover your specific industry, and do some homework.  Remember, we’re reviewing geo-targeted marketing opportunities. You may find tactics such as these:

• Email blasts:  Partner with a publisher to email relevant content or offers towards their email database
• Enewsletter sponsorships:  Many times, publishers have regional editions of enewsletters.  Find out about banner ad sponsorship availabilities
• Pre-printed inserts or regional ads.  Can be pricey- but is an option.
• Geo-targeted banner ads on publication websites or industry portals
• List rental from publishers, giving you the ability to target geography, industries, and titles. Beware of minimal counts and spend however. Snail mail and email options exist.

In summary, I just wanted to give a quick overview on advertising and digital marketing opportunities if you are a local or regional b2b.  By combining some of these options with regionally targeted pay-per-click on Google, Bing, or LinkedIn, you are reaching audiences who need you, and audiences who don’t need you yet, until your marketing convinces them.  Isn’t that what advertising is all about?

I say that because the goal of search engine optimization is to drive increased unbranded (terms that do not mention your company name) quality traffic to your website that converts into a desired action; nothing more; nothing less.  That’s my goal with clients.  It’s why you always have to track and optimize your efforts, think about what keywords you are optimized for, and what keywords you SHOULD be optimized for. It’s time to get real with this task, but not over-think it.

When I first assess a client’s strategy, I first have to really understand what the client does, what the goal of the website is, and what the conversion goals are. Following up on my recent post on keyword research, it’s important to match the search intent of your desired audience with your keywords and website content.  Examples:

• Query type:  Research
  • Search query “information on how to __________”
  • Website theme:  Provide information, articles, and advice; provide educational content
  • Website goal: Content-heavy with the goal to drive traffic and sell advertising on your site, bait audiences to a newsletter or a product (or affiliate)

•  Query type: Service or business solutions
  • Search query “looking for companies that do __________”
  • Website theme:  Promotional with benefit content; provide evidence of your services
  • Website goal: Provide a business case that solves problems; and persuade audiences to convert as an inquiry

• Query type: Purchase
  • Search query “I need a ________”
  • Website theme:  Showcase your products; provide content that reassures audiences of your quality, value, and expertise
  • Website goal: Generate quotes or purchases, and minimize cart abandonment

The proper list of keywords you need all must follow these criteria: 

• Align with what you do as a company.  The words you identify for 1^st page rankings must be aligned with your services and website goals.  As you review your keywords, simply ask yourself- “why would a prospect click my listing for that keyword?” and “will the destination URL on my website align with that query in order to optimize conversions?

Get Real statement:  It’s not what you rank for (because many terms may be irrelevant or are rarely searched), or how many terms you rank for, but are you ranked for the appropriate terms that would generate quality clicks to your website (and low bounce rates).

• Have decent search traffic.  You could have a great product or service, but SEO doesn’t work if no one is searching for it or you choose the wrong keywords.  This is where you do a comprehensive keyword assessment in order to identify what terms people use that need you.  If your goal is to increase traffic, and your current website traffic is flat, then we need to re-think the terms you currently optimize for, and that means re-doing some of your website content. 

Get Real statement:  Stop thinking about what you do or what your content says you do if there are limited search queries for the keywords you are currently optimized for. Step out of the box and refocus your efforts and content on what prospects DO search for.  Example- if you are a financial firm, and you provide wealth management services, and “wealth management services” has low traffic, you’ll need to re-optimize your content strategy if you get more and better quality traffic for “retirement planning services”

Caveat:  If you are in a specialized business or have unique services with less competition, terms with low traffic counts may be appropriate if the conversion rate for those terms are proven profitable. 

• Moderately or less competitive.  Evaluating competitive rankings via Google’s keyword tools or 3^rd party tools like SEOMoz, SEMRush and others can certainly give you guidance on how competitive your chosen keywords are and the opportunity to be on Google’s first page.  Besides the tools, Google your keywords yourself, review the competition, and make note on how to differentiate yourself when your SEO firm writes meta titles and descriptions.   If your keyword, although it may have high search volume, shows to be heavily competitive, you’ll have to invest in lots of time, funds, content, and resources to achieve a high ranking.  This is why long-tail terms and geographic terms are much more achievable to achieve that 1^st page rank; less competitive. 

Get Real statement:  Choosing the right keywords is an art and a science.  Use tools and analytics to determine the traffic and the competition, and then be smart about the selection.  Maybe instead of “Accounting software small business” you choose “Accounting software for law firms” if there’s decent monthly traffic for that term, and it’s not as competitive. 

Typically we look at a ratio, comparing how many web sites include the keyword, and how many searches are done for that keyword.  You have a better chance at 1^st page ranking with a high ratio percentage.   Formula:

Google searches per day / competition (websites that include your keyword term) = search ratio

So here’s an example for a title insurance company located in Pennsylvania. 

“Mortgage title insurance” is too broad.  Even though there’s a fair amount of monthly traffic, the searches per day for just that term is very low, so it’s not worth optimizing for that phrase.

“Title insurance companies” is being indexed at a higher level according to Google (more website competition), but it also is a popular search term.  The ratio is .18%. I usually eyeball a ratio of over .10% as a target keyword for clients.  This is a good term to optimize for if I were a national company.

“Title insurance pa” is an ideal term to be optimized for, since the company is in Pennsylvania. The ratio is .53% which is really strong.  Although the searches per day may be light, it can be assumed that all of those searches come from Pennsylvania, meaning traffic is targeted, and conversion rate would be positive.

Get Real statement:  Choosing keywords to rank for on Google’s 1^st page has to be strategic; I’ll say it again- it’s not about current rankings; it’s not about high searched terms; it’s about terms most likely to bring you engaged traffic and increased conversions. 

In summary, proper SEO efforts work best when you have a keyword and website goal strategy working together.  The process of optimizing website copy, and the art/science of back linking and guest blogging, means nothing if your website isn’t optimized for conversion.  Choosing the right keywords, by matching your products and services with the keywords most likely to drive traffic by obtaining 1^st page position, is what an SEO firm is supposed to do for you.  Are they?

Marketers must really understand their audience’s needs in order to provide something of value that can lead to a conversion.  Therefore, that pay-per-click ad must align with the keyword phrase, as well as the landing page offer, for better paid search optimization. When ads do not align with the search query, click through rates are reduced, quality scores are reduced, cost-per-click increases, ad rank is reduced, and the campaign performs poorly.

So you really have to plan for your keyword strategy.  It’s not just the tools, but it’s also speaking with customers, and many times, common sense.  In fact, there are a number of ways to research keywords such as:

• As stated, speaking with clients and customers
• Reviewing competitive sites (and tools such as Spyfu)
• Your organic keywords obtained from your analytics program
• Google’s keyword research tool
• Other third party keyword research tools
• Industry research and news websites
• Social media monitoring
• General internal brainstorming- review all of your products and services- what do they do, what problems do they solve, what type of buyer needs them?

If you have multiple target audiences (industry and or job title), make a list of these personas. Job titles may have different needs for the same solutions.  C-level audiences have bottom-line thinking.  Mid-managers are more into specific features or benefits (efficiency, cost-savings, and productivity).  Keywords, landing pages, and offers need to address these audiences within specific paid search campaigns.

When it comes to buying cycles, your campaigns need to address needs throughout the funnel. The typical stages are: 

• Awareness. Your potential customers don’t know you exist. You need to target them to get their attention.
• Research. Potential customers not only know you exist but have shown an interest in learning more about products or solutions.
• Purchase. These people have a good idea about what they want and are ready to purchase.

Therefore long tail keyword phrases should align with the stages above.

Now let’s have a little keyword research fun.  When I gather my seed keywords for my client’s campaigns, I match with appropriate complementary keywords as below, and then turn those phrases into modified broad, phrase, and exact matches, using a tool I’ll share later.

For the below, let’s use my firm, NuSpark Marketing, as an example, and one of my services, pay-per-click strategy, as search queries.

For each group (which can emulate Google ad groups), I show a sample actual search query, and a modified broad match (denoted by a plus sign) that is the keyword format included in my ad groups. A modified broad match is when a search engine query includes all of the keywords in your keyword phrase with a plus sign.  It’ll make sense as you read the examples below.

Awareness Phase: Seed keywords focus in what your prospects’ needs are

Offer: Educational white paper

Group One:

• How to
• Why does
• Ways to
• Looking for

Actual query: How to improve pay-per-click results

Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +How +To +Pay +per +click

Group Two:

• Tips
• Techniques
• Ideas
• Improving

Actual query: Pay-per-click optimization techniques

Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +techniques

Group Three:

• Pdfs
• Powerpoints
• Presentations
• Articles
• White papers
• Blogs
• Research

Actual query: Articles on Pay-per-click management

Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +articles

Group Four:

• Results
• Performance
• Process
• Productivity
• Success
• Effectiveness

Actual query: Improving Pay-per-click results

Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +results

Research Phase: Seed keywords focus in what your company does or is

Offer:  Trials, Demos. Benefit-focused copy

Group Five:

• Top
• Major
• Options
• Best

Actual query: Top Pay-per-click firms that focus on lead generation

Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +top

Group Six:

• Reviews
• Opinions
• Case studies
• Advice

Actual query: Review of pay-per-click firms in Philadelphia

Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +reviews

Group Seven:

• List
• Search
• Directory
• Guide

Actual query: List of B2B pay-per-click lead generation firms

Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +list

Group Eight:

• Solutions
• Software
• Programs
• Tools
• Platforms
• Services

Actual query: Pay-per-click programs for b2b businesses

Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +programs

Group Nine:

• Companies
• Firms
• Agencies
• Vendors
• Consultants

Actual query: Pay-per-click firms that specialize in b2b

Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +firms

Group Ten- For specific industries you cover.  List those industries in your research.

Industry specific

• For

Actual query: Pay-per-click software for the accounting industry

Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +for +”industry”

Purchase Phase

Ad/Offer:  Discounts, Promotions

Group Eleven

• Affordable
• Cheap
• Discount
• Buy
• Purchase
• Sale
• Prices
• Deals
• Clearance

Actual query: Where to buy pay-per-click software

Modified broad match keyword in Adwords: +Pay +per +click +buy

Below is a concatenate tool we use at NuSpark Marketing that helps us create and manage keywords, by merging terms for up to 4 themes, and outputting exact, phrase, broad, modified broad and negative matches. After we enter the seed keywords and the complementary terms as listed above, we output very specific long-tail keywords for the appropriate ad groups. 

In a nutshell, when planning pay-per-click or paid search campaigns, you need to put a lot of thought into your strategy; determine what terms people use to consider, research, and purchase your products, and offer unique content and offers that best match those search queries within those buying stages.  This process is crucial for optimizing a lead generation pay-per-click campaign.  We’ll get to negatives keywords in a future post.

What do you think of this process?  What works for you?