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:

SMX London 2010 – Alex Cohen Tells Us Why Reports Are Useless from Alex Minchin on Vimeo.

Video: 4 Ways Reports Suck (And How To Fix Them)

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 a great free competitive intelligence tool (and a pay one that’s much cheaper than Hitwise).

Keywords are the gateway in PPC advertising that connect your business to prospects. But, how do you find keyword niches that are profitable? I’ll talk about 2 unconventional techniques to finding the right keywords (or, rather, search queries):

1. Competitive Intelligence – Discover which words are driving traffic to your competitors sites and which ones drive engagement.
2. Search Query Mining – Uncover the real words people use before they click on your text ad and stop irrelevant clicks

You’ll leave with actionable tips and free tools  you can use immediately to improve your PPC campaigns. Space is limited. Register now!

I’m Presenting a Free Webinar on Keyword Research

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)

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 of their organic search results (content) by introducing Universal Search – the integration of new types of content such as video and product listings directly into search results.

While those changes occurred, PPC ads have largely remained text only. It’s possible that as universal search has gone mainstream, clicks on paid search ads may have suffered. Something had to give.

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The Text Ad Revolution

As I noted in my post 2009: The Year AdWords Attacked Organic Search, Google made a series of changes, some rather dramatic, to their once staid text ads last year.

• February 20, 2009 – Updated Display URL Policy
• March 4, 2009 – Expandable Rich Media Ads on the Content Network (beta)
• March 11, 2009 – Interest Based User Targeting on the Content Network (beta)
• May 14, 2009 – Google Loosens Their Trademark Restrictions
• July 24, 2009 – Local Extensions for Local Business Ads
• August 6, 2009 – Google Moves Paid Ads Closer to Organic Listings
• September 17, 2009 – The DoubleClick Ad Exchange is Integrated on the Content Network
• October 29, 2009 – New AdWords Comparison Ads
• November 3, 2009 – Ad Sitelinks in AdWords
• November 11th and 24, 2009 – Product Extensions Open to All

These changes largely fall under Google’s AdWords New Ad Formats Initiative. When I was at SES Chicago, I asked Devin Sandoz, Product Marketing Manager for AdWords, about the guiding principles behind the initiative. He pointed to the evolution of organic search results as the model for the initiative.

Google is playing with the visual balance between organic and paid search to balance user satisfaction and the average revenue per click/SERP. Any combination of images, videos, PlusBoxes, icons, product listings and multiple text ad links can now appear mixed in with paid search ads.

And this is only the beginning.

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2010: The Year of Universal Paid Search

2010 will be the year of what I’m naming Universal Paid Search – the evolution of online advertising served to searchers on Google and across the web.

Universal Paid Search will be driven by 4 major trends:

1. Increased Ad Diversity
2. Moving Beyond Clickthrough Rate
3. Personalized Text Ads
4. Search Retargeting with Display

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Increased Ad Diversity

Text ads will continue to dominate most search results. However, we’ll see a greater percentage of SERPs with new ad formats and ad extensions blended into text ads, specifically:

• Product listings ads
• Product listing extensions
• Comparative Ads
• Ad sitelinks

The conditions that trigger comparative ad and ad sitelinks are somewhat limited. It’s more likely, then, that product listing ads and extensions will be the first step in increased ad diversity.

Click to Enlarge

New ad formats are more disruptive than ad extensions, so I expect that Google be more liberal with their beta tests for ad extensions. These often come in the form of their PlusBox. For example, rich media ads were introduced to the Content Network through the PlusBox earlier this year. As this analysis shows, the presence of PlusBox does increase clickthrough rates.

Click to Enlarge

I wouldn’t be surprised if we see video ads wade into the waters through the PlusBox. They’ve already tested these out in the entertainment area. PlusBox could also help recoup some of the massive drop in search spending within the pharmaceutical industry by adding a place for fair balance.

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Moving Beyond Clickthrough Rate

Universal Paid Search isn’t just about new ads, it’s also about new calls-to-action/conversion events and monetization models for Google.

Google is increasingly trying to move the customer experience from advertisers’ sites to the search results or other areas of Google.com. For example, Google is introducing ad formats to monetize ambiguous but high volume head terms in the loan industry with Comparative Ads. These ads lead users to a page where users give additional information about their query and advertisers pay if the user clicks through. These formats currently appear on a limited basis:

“At this time, Comparison Ads will only show to a small number of users in select U.S. states and is only available to a limited number of advertisers in the mortgage/refinance space. Over time, we’ll increase the number of users who see Comparison Ads offers as well as the number of advertisers able to participate”

Click to Enlarge

Other lead generation business models are probably within their sights. Similarly, new ad extensions are offering alternative actions for more specific queries:

• Form Extensions Beta allows users to fill out a form right on the SERP if the ad is in the preferred position (#1 spot above organic listings). Advertisers are charged the Max CPC for submissions.Click to Enlarge
  
• Click to Call with location extensions lets users browsing through smartphones click-to-call phone numbers in sponsored listings.

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Personalized Text Ads

As text ad change, so will the way Google serves them to individual users. Earlier this year personalized search moved mainstream with the decision to extend it to users who weren’t signed into Google.

That announcement was limited to organic search. When Google implements personalized results in organic search, they can measure the impact to customer satisfaction more directly and advertisers don’t really have a say in the process.

A similar evolution in search ads will occur, with some users more likely to see different ads or types of ads based on past interaction with search ads. However, paid search is much more complicated. Advertisers want to be target, measure and optimize variations in how their ads appear.

We’re already seeing personalized search ads with session based retargeting for broad match (here, here and here). Notably, Google introduced the feature, then reporting and still hasn’t given advertisers the explicit ability to opt into or out of this kind of advanced ad serving (with the exception of search query reports and negatives).

I expect Google will move most cautiously into personalized paid search and follow the same feature -> reporting -> control model.

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Search Retargeting with Display

Perhaps the biggest trend in Universal Paid Search isn’t about SERPs at all – Google’s move into display. In case you missed it, Google is putting a big emphasis on display in 2010:

“Our display business will give advertisers the opportunity to reach people with visual stories and narratives that they couldn’t with search-ad text,” Mr. Schmidt said on a call with analysts.

“We’ve been saying for a while that display is a big opportunity. One story you haven’t seen so far is how successful we’ve been in display, but that will come out in 2010.” (AllThingsD)

Display is an enormous component of online advertising spend and critical to Google’s continued revenue growth. Today, AdWords and display coexist primarily in the content network where advertisers can place image (and some rich media) through contextual targeting.

That model started to change when Google introduced behavioral targeting for audiences based on “interests” on the content network.

Google wants to monetize non-Google properties with their AdWords model of self-service and real-time bidding. They can accomplish this at scale through the eventual merging of AdSense and the Double Click Advertising Exchange.

There will be a mid-to-long term learning curve to get traditional performance advertisers who use search to migrate some of their budget to display whenever that integration occurs. Search retargeting, which I’m defining in this case as reaching people who’ve already visited your site from search with display ads, will bridge that gap in the short term. This isn’t news to search advertisers, since Yahoo already offers this feature.

The walls that divide search and display (and their budgets) will fall as the technology, data and training advance.

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Grappling with Universal Paid Search

Universal Paid Search will introduce more complexity and competition than ever before. Traditionally search exclusive advertisers and agencies are likely to be face pressure to test new advertising options and explore ways to integrate display into the mix.

I suggest you make friends with your Google rep to get advanced notice and access to betas.  Prepare yourselves; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Alex Cohen is the Senior Marketing Manager at ClickEquations, a complete pay per click software platform for large advertisers and agencies.

The Rise of Universal Paid Search

Keywords get too much attention in paid search. Search queries, the actual phrase a search types into the engine, are a much better indicator of a person’s intent.

Today, I spoke at Search Marketing Expo west about what search queries are, where you can find them and how to use them to optimize your paid search account. Enjoy!

Stop Keyword Research! Start Query Mining.

I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at SMX West this year. I’m on the Keyword Research: Beyond the Ordinary Panel with a distinguished group (see below).

Stop by on day 1 at 3:00 to hear me speak or say hello in the expo hall where I’ll be manning the ClickEquations booth. Register for SMX today to get the discounted rate with the code smx10click

Here’s a preview from a ClickEquations webinar, Master Search Queries to Save Money and Increase Conversions. You can also check out this search query article.

Keyword Research: Beyond The Ordinary – You’ve mastered the tools. You’ve built out your keyword portfolio, keeping the winners and deleting the losers. How do you take it to the next level? This session looks at innovative approaches to keyword research that help you find those really significant keywords your customers are searching for, uncover your competitors’ keywords, mine the long tail for those elusive but truly valuable obscure search terms, and expand your “virtual shelf space” in surprising and non-obvious ways.

Moderator:

• Jennifer Laycock, Social Media Strategist & Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Guide

Speakers:

• Christine Churchill, President, KeyRelevance.com
• Alex Cohen, Senior Marketing Manager, ClickEquations
• Cady Condyles, Director of Marketing, The Rimm-Kaufman Group
• Stoney deGeyter, President, Pole Position Marketing
• Taylor Pratt, Product Marketing Manager, Raven Internet Marketing Tools

Keyword Research Beyond the Ordinary at SMX West

This post originally appeared on Search Engine Watch, where I will be a (semi-regular) contributor

You can’t make money in web analytics just by looking at reports.” With that, SES Advisor and New York Times bestselling author Bryan Eisenberg set the stage for the state of analysis in search marketing.

As budgets flow from offline to online, they’re moving disproportionately to search. Search has always excelled at accountability, but as the spend increases the bar is being raised.

We all have and know what web analytics are. Data quantity isn’t the issue, action quantity is.

Matt Bailey (SiteLogic) summed it up perfectly with the word “velleity”. It means “the desire to do something, but not enough of a desire to take action.” It describes the feeling of marketers who have been burnt by reporting that isn’t actionable.

Over the course of the Analytics, Conversion and Attribution sessions during the first day at SES Chicago, the speakers each addressed three of the core challenges in fighting velleity and taking action on your data:

1. Prioritization
2. Segmentation
3. Process

1. Prioritization
Web analytics has come a long way from the days of log file analyzers used by the IT department. Naturally, people tend to want to make tools bigger, faster and more complicated, however “if you have a tool, everything looks like a nail,” says Jim Sterne of eMetrics and the Web Analytics Association.

The problem is “what should I look at?” and “what do you actually analyze?”

Jim suggests you bucket and prioritize 4 ways

1. Revenue that is at risk
2. Anything the boss’s boss’s boss asks for
3. Requests that do not overwhelm the department
4. Analysis that requires an analyst rather than simply being self-served

Your job is to find a specific process and optimize that, for example a shopping cart, experience from a search campaign or lead generation page. Go to your data and ask “How can you help me optimize the process?”

In another session, Jim reminded us that traditional web analytics tools tell you “where the problem is and which one is most significant at the moment.” To really understand why, you have to augment those tools with usability testing and surveys.

In a nod to his upcoming book, Jim also shared a framework for prioritizing analysis for one of the most discussed topics at the conference–social media:

• Reach – How many people could possibly see my message (blog mentions x blog readers)
• Frequency – How often is my message being discussed, ex: comments on a blog post
• Influence – The more authority the author, the bigger the halo effect and potential viral spread
• Sentiment – Having lots of people talk about you is great… unless they say bad things. The tools aren’t great yet, so hire interns.
• Outcomes – Did they take the action you wanted them to?

2. Segmentation
Of course, even if you prioritize your analysis, there is no such thing as an average user. People who come to your website aren’t looking for the exact same thing. They all have different needs and wants. We can’t treat visitors the same. Unique visitors aren’t all the same. Segmentation matters. We have to look at what people wanted when they came to the site.

But, as Matt Bailey (SiteLogic) says “analytics dashboards tend to be as usable as Ikea furniture instructions.” The cure for dashboards that suffer from average-itis is to segment.

Matt shared his 7 favorite tips:

1. Create Keyword Buckets “Segments” – Start with the big buckets, e.g. digital cameras and then develop smaller buckets, e.g. digital cameras, professional digital cameras, etc.
2. Segment Based On Acquisition (Channels) – Ask “which source is bringing the best traffic?” Matt shared an interesting a pattern that drives engagement: the more engaged a visitor was with a message about your company or product before they got to your site, the more likely they’ll be engaged after. Twitter is at the bottom of the this inverted pyramid: Blogs & Articles, YouTube, Forums, Search, Social News and Twitter.
3. Segment Your Bounce Rates – Typically if it’s high, it’s a word that means something totally different in another industry. You have to look at the context. Sometimes it’s not just their intent, sometimes it’s your design (ex: Fluid width design on a large screen monitor)
4. Segment Your Content - Divide your analysis by Persuasive pages (which ones drive conversions), entry pages, time on page and search behavior
5. Segment Behavior – Divide the behavior on your site, but make it more accessible by giving the data friendly names for the audience your presenting to (ex: someone with “O” in their title would understand)
6. Segment Entry Points – You could have the right ranking on the wrong page
7. Take Action – After you segment, take some action!

In his 21 Secrets of Top Converting Websites (which he will deliver as the keynote of SES London), Bryan emphasized how important it is to also analyze trends by segments in search. For example, focus on “what’s changed” reports of keywords that are rising and falling the fastest by CPC or Revenue, instead of just analyzing the top 10.

3. Process
Of course, prioritization and segmentation are both part of a larger web analytics process. As Bryan reminded us, “to do web analytics correctly, you have to make a to do list regularly.” An actionable list addresses:

• What marketing efforts or parts of your site have challenges
• What you think needs to be improved
• What things you want to test
• What efforts you should do less of
• What efforts you should do more of

The core of an actionable web analytics process is data driven decision making. Nothing does that better than testing, using the tools that fit your questions and budget:

• Google Website Optimizer for A/B and Multivariate Testing (free)
• Monetate for onsite behavioral target (paid)
• UserTesting.com for usability reviews (paid)
• 5 Second Test for quick voice of the customer (free)

Part of a successful process is optimizing for your conversion rate, which often hovers around 2%. Dr. Phil Mui challenged us to expand by process by asking “How do you measure success for the rest of the 98%?”

First, map out the micro-conversions that fall into that 98% for you business type, for example:

• Ecommerce – product research account signups, contact us
• Non-profits – volunteer leads, promotion of the cause
• Video Sites – Account registration, newsletter signups, premiums account signups
• Blogs – Links to your blog, comments on your posts

It’s also important that you optimize holistically in your process. Don’t just test elements on your landing page; also test which landing page choice makes sense, for example: a category page vs. a product page.

You can’t forget to test what people see before they get to your site. Optimize search creatives for conversion. Test multiple ads and measure which one drove conversion.

Regardless of the tools and process you use, the message every speaker conveyed is that more action is better than more data, so measure, focus, optimize and repeat.

The State of Search Analytics

Budgets are moving online and moving to search marketing faster than any other channel. Today’s MBA’s need to understand what paid and organic search are and how they fit into the marketing mix. This presentation discussed the channels conceptually and gives practical tips to use them.

Here are the resources and links from my presentation

• ClickEquations – http://www.clickequations.com
• My Twitter account – http://www.twitter.com/digitalalex
• LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexcohen
• Cornell University eyetracking study
• Eyetools eyetracking study
• An eye-tracking study of information usage in Web search: Variations in target position and contextual snippet length – Edward Cutrell, Zhiwei Guan
• Advanced Paid Search Advice
  • www.clickequations.com/blog
  • www.clickequations.com/learn
• Google Analytics (free web analytics software)
• Google Website Optimizer (free website testing software)
• WordPress (the best free blogging software)
• Yahoo Web Analytics Forum – Free advice from experts at web measurement (user group)
• 4Q from iPerceptions – Free, basic website survey tool
• Quantcast (free site analysis for competition and ad buys)
• Compete (free basic competitive intelligence tool; a lot is hidden behind the subscription price)
• Google Insights for Search (free tool to analyze trends in what people search for)
• Google Trends (see what’s hot in searches and analyze trends)
• Crazy Egg (visualize where people click on your site)
• ClickTale (video record visits to your website)

The MBA Guide to Search Marketing

By WTL Photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wtlphotos/

I’m happy to report that I no longer work at Commerce360.  I had a good time while it lasted, but it was time for something different.

And that something different is ClickEquations.  We’ve re-branded Commerce360 as ClickEquations to focus on our advanced pay per click software.  (Sorry, it was a little late for April Fool’s but I needed a dramatic intro :-) )

This is a bit of a personal post, which I almost never do, but worth reading if you care about paid search.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Back in 2007, I left Refinery (now G2 Philly, a division of Grey Interactive) to join Commerce360.  At the time, I was still a full time web analyst with strategic aspirations.

Commerce360 was then focused on being the next generation of agency: a team of smart people optimizing across channels based with data driven decisions.  I joined the team as an analyst on a course toward full time strategy.But, as I soon learned is the norm for startups (this is my first), we shifted focus entirely on paid search and SEO.

The Birth of ClickEquations

The vision of the company was always to have smart people supported by killer technology.  Search is among the most data intensive channels out there, so it was the obvious place to start looking for a tool that could do the heavy lifting while we focused on strategy and optimization.

After surveying the market, we just couldn’t find anything good enough, including Omniture Search Center.  Too much money had been spent building tools focused on a search engine-centric view of managing paid search instead of a customer and practitioner centric view.  It was a completely flawed way of attacking the problem and even the “best” of what was on the market was an expensive and clumsy solution at best.  So we hired a development team and began building our own tool: ClickEquations.

A Slight Career Detour

Search marketing is strategic, but it’s not the same as developing cross-channel strategy. Without a pure strategist role, I ended becoming a strange hybrid: part Strategic Account Manager (client relations), part multivariate tester, part guy-who-does-random-things.

When people ask why I got into advertising and marketing, I give them the same answer: Bewitched.  I used to watch the show as a kid and was strangely fascinated with the ad lifestyle (portrayed as a sanitized and more kitsch version of today’s Mad Men). I figured it was 3 martini lunches and everyone got to do fun pitches all of the time, right?

Without nose twitching magic powers, Account Management is a fairly high pressure job.  You’re the middle man between clients with high expectations (sometimes disproportionate to what they’re paying) and limited budgets and a services team with limited time and all of the pressure for results.

On the plus side, it’s a great way to learn a lot of businesses quickly, master contracts (write 20 contracts in 6 months and you pick up a few things) and practice the fine art of expectations management:  “Yes, we can do that, but we’ll have to push this off and cut that down by 20%”.

I worked on SEO and paid search engagements with clients from startups to large corporations.  Perhaps the most rewarding project for me was a multivariate testing engagement with Comcast.net, one of the most visited sites on the Internet in the US. It was my first opportunity to dive deeply into testing on a site with both large enough traffic to get statistically significant results from large, full factorial multivariate tests and with a client who trusted us to take most of our recommendations and make all of the pieces line up.  More on this in a future post…

Back Home Again

The truth is, I never wanted to be an Account Manager.  Every place I’ve worked has, at one time or another, positioned me in the role.  While I took to it naturally, my heart wasn’t in it.  I resumed the push for something broader and more strategic.

Fortunately, I work with a very supportive management team (thanks Lu!) and I’ve fully transitioned into the role of Marketing Manager for ClickEquations.  Since December of last year, I’ve been in charge of all strategy and execution for online and offline marketing of the product.

Thought I couldn’t have planned it that way, my strange detour was probably the perfect training ground for my current position, because:

• I learned paid and organic search
• I proved myself to the executive team with our largest and most demanding clients (the kind we like as ClickEquations customers)
• I got a broad exposure to more business types (lead gen, international, etc.)

It’s the generalist role I was meant to be in: constantly changing, ridiculously demanding and highly competitive. I like to have my grubby hands on everything, which you can already see in our Learn section (free paid search resources) and the Reporting page (it’s my numbers nerd side leaking out).

What’s In It For You?

Well, the truth is I’ve been holding back on some of my better tips and tricks.  I mean, I can’t give it all away for free, right?

Actually, no.  Now that I’m no longer on the agency side and we’re focusing on the software, I’m now totally free to write about all of my favorite tricks and share some of the proprietary training and materials clients once had to pay for.  So, you can look forward to that :-)  Subscribe so you don’t miss any.

I’ve also got an exclusive, limited time offer for Digital Alex readers for ClickEquations.

ClickEquations: Paid Search Management Platform

I was recently up at Search Engine Strategies (SES) New York manning the ClickEquations booth.  Let me tell you, if you ever need to master your elevator pitch, work at a trade show.  When you have to explain your product to hundreds of people a day, you figure it out pretty quickly.

So here’s ClickEquations in a nutshell:

ClickEquations is a paid search management platform for large advertisers and agencies.

Who It’s Really For

If you’re spending $5,000 per month, ClickEquations is probably not for you.  If you’re spending $500,000 month, you’re definitely in need of something better than AdWords Editor.

The difference is that the higher your spend, the more likely you’re:

• Really feeling the pain of having to manage campaigns through the engine interfaces.  Yahoo, in particular, is very cumbersome and not intuitively designed
• Wasting money or leaving it on the table at an inhibitive rate, because you get a clear enough view of what’s really happening and where the opportunity lies
• Having trouble scaling your business or that of your clients because of the sheer logistics of managing large, complex campaigns

Google Analytics is not going to solve this problem.  You need better reporting, intuitive cross-engine campaign management and ppc bid management that you can control and review.

Stop Yapping: What’s The Offer?

Since this is my blog and I’m the Marketing Manager, I can make my own exclusive offer:

I will give anyone who spends $100K+/month on paid search and purchases ClickEquations 4 hours of personal consulting time (to talk about any aspect of online marketing you want) and help create a custom dashboard using ClickEquations Analyst, our unique Excel plugin.

So, check out ClickEquations and see if you like it.  To start, just request a demo and enter “Alex Rocks” in the comments field (yes, I read them :-) ). If you have questions, you can email me directly: marketing@clickequations.com.

Thanks for indulging me on this one very personal post.  I’ll resume my regular “how to” style posts moving forward.  Also, I microblog quite a bit over on Twitter, so follow me as DigitalAlex.

Cheers,

-Alex

I No Longer Work at Commerce360