Part of my job is keeping up on all of the paid search news. It’s easy to get swept up in vast and generous search community only to realize that the general marketing public doesn’t obsess about paid search like we do.
Fortunately, I had a chance to take a step back and think about PPC from a non-search marketer’s point of view for my interview on Marketwire’s Ask The Expert. In their words, “the Ask the Expert interview series is Marketwire’s way of delving into the minds of industry leaders and experts, asking them the most salient and pertinent questions that affect PR, IR and marketing communications professionals.”
In the interview, I tackled 7 broad and tactical questions about PPC:
Where does PPC fit in the overall marketing mix?
What are some of the trends in paid search that marketers need to know about?
What are some of the barriers that keep people from improving their PPC ROI?
Could you briefly explain what Quality Score (QS) is and provide us with some tips on how people can improve QS?
Explain the correlation between PPC, SEO and Social. How do you see the three working together?
When it comes to paid search, it’s important to try to understand the thought process of the customer. What are your top web analytics metrics that provides this insight? Can you provide tips on improving these metrics?
How do you see ClickEquations evolving within the next couple years now that companies and brands have so much focus on social media?
We’re all trying to improve our paid search performance from our current profit to our potential profit by doing better research, optimizing our campaigns and improving our site. When does it make sense to invest in technology to help you with that process?
That’s the theme of my speech today on the Search Marketing Toolbox panel at Search Engine Strategies San Francisco. I shared the 4 types of problems that prevent you from improving your profit, 43 paid search marketing tools and my Paid Search Marketing Technology Curve.
I recommend when it makes sense to invest in education and which tools you should consider, depending on how important paid search is to your company.
We’ve all had that moment. You know, the one where a friend leans across the table and discreetly whispers “You’ve got something in your teeth.” Instinctively, you cover your mouth and scurry off to the bathroom to fix the problem. A flipbook of social interactions races past and you wonder how many people you talked to while that piece of spinach stole the show and undermined your credibility.
As it turns out, while I’ve been yapping on about paid search and web analytics, there’s been a big, old piece of digital spinach stuck in my blog: malware.
Both Phil Pearce (blog) and Nick Stees contacted me to let me know they got a malware warning when from AVG, a security program, when they tried to read my site. Instead of my mildly entertaining insights, they were greeted by a big, ugly warning sign screaming: Run Away!
(click to enlarge)
Not exactly the welcome mat, right?
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Removing The Malware
Among his many useful tips, Phil pointed me in the direction of Sucuri. They bill themselves as a “provider of web-based integrity monitoring and malware detection solutions.” Or, more amusingly, “In simple terms, we clean up the mess. If your site got hacked, blacklisted or infected with malware, we fix it for you. If your site is clean, we monitor it to let you know if a problem ever happens.” I can personally back up their claim. My site was cleaned within 30 minutes of submitting my ticket, all for $10.
Until this incident, I never know Sucuri even existed and only had a vague familiarity with site monitoring and maintenance tools. It’s a bit like traveler’s insurance: you only really pay attention after you lose your luggage.
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Lessons Learned
I’ll leave the details of how my site got infected and the potential defenses to the long list of tips Phil generously shared (included below). The larger point here is that when we think of measurement, we usually focus on marketing and site experience. Most of our analysis includes metrics that are easily accessible in our web analytics tool and generally understood. Even qualitative data focuses on site level and page level surveys.
But what happens if someone can’t get to your site? You may notice a dip in traffic, but if the segment isn’t big enough, you may not. That was certainly the case with me. I only learned about the problem, because two kind souls followed me on Twitter and took the time to reach out. How many more had an issue before I discovered it? What was the hit to my credibility? I’ll never know.
I took away two lessons:
If you own the site experience, as a marketer or web analyst, you’re also directly or indirectly responsible for site uptime and security. Typically, this belongs to the realm of IT or webmasters. But, we can empower ourselves with our own tools, like Sucuri, to get alerts before issues spread to epidemics.
Being easily accessible is valuable. A small number of people would ever both to take the time to track me down and help me with my site. It would have been virtually impossible for them to do that if I wasn’t public (on Twitter as DigitalAlex), participating in the conversation and welcoming of contact (I put my phone number and email address on my profile).
On a final note: My apologies if anyone experienced issues after visiting my site. I’ll try to keep the damage to bad analogies.
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Phil’s Tips and Links You can also try the malware scanner on this site – it can verify the WordPress install is secure – once you have restored from backup (requires login)
Paul Adams is a user experience research at Google. He recently gave a speech outlining research by Google and others into how people connect with each other and what that means for the internet.
It’s easy to follow, persuasive and, most importantly, not about technology. It’s about persistent facts about how people behave and what that means for designers (his audience) and marketers (my audience).
This year, I was honored to be invited to present at SMX Advanced in London. I took the opportunity to vent all of my pent up anger at reports from years spent as a web analyst and Account Manager in a presentation called “4 Ways Reports Suck (And How To Fix Them).
Joking aside, I share 4 ways to make reporting more about optimization. Alex Minchin was kind enough to record my presentation for those who didn’t make it:
Things have been quiet here on Digital Alex, because I’ve been spending a lot of time writing for Search Engine Watch and speaking at search conferences. No rest for the weary, though, as I’m presenting a free webinar about keyword research. The webinar was organized by ClickEquations (my company) and Compete, the folks who have [...]
Search marketing is 1% data and 99% action. But, we all spend a lot of time on reporting. This presentation, which I just delivered at SMX London, shows you 4 ways PPC reports suck and how you can fix them. 4 Ways Reports Suck (And How To Fix Them) – Alex Cohen – SMX Advanced [...]
Google does not make money from organic search. It’s simply content they need to monetize like any publisher. As with all publishers, their goal is to maximize revenue by: Increasing market share Improving user loyalty and product usage Monetizing users more effectively In the past few years, Google has made significant improvements in the relevance [...]
This post originally appeared on SEOMoz. Referenceable content is the holy grail of online communities. People talk about it, comment on it, link to it, tweet it and visit it over and over again. In a world full of chatter, it sets you apart as an authoritative voice. Creating referenceable content is an art. Measuring [...]
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