Category: Google AdWords

Posted on

If you’re not clicking on AdWords ads, who is?

The short answer is “Lot’s of people”. Online advertising has overwhelmingly proven its value to businesses of all types. Yet it seems as though most clients that are new to pay per click (PPC) like Google’s AdWords say that they don’t click on ads.

Why is this?

It could be that people don’t know how they are clicking on an ad in search results.  This article cites research that in early 2014 36% of people didn’t know they were clicking on an ad when it appeared in a Google search return.

Screenshot 2015-01-08 15.28.53

Perhaps this (or a court case in the EU) prompted AdWords to begin including little yellow “Ad” icons in their search results:

Screenshot 2015-01-08 15.18.34

It’s still a little confusing in the right hand column, isn’t it?

The above screen grab is of the entire screen on a laptop but doesn’t show a single organic result for the search term “ppc advertising”. From a marketing standpoint that confusion makes PPC more attractive not less since it’s been conclusively proved that people more frequently click on search returns toward the top of the first page.

There may be a very big difference in the effectiveness of PPC when a buyer is ready to purchase something.  Marketing firm Wordstream claimed in 2012 “Clicks on paid search listings beat out organic clicks by nearly a 2:1 margin for keywords with high commercial intent in the US. In other words, 64.6% of people click on Google Ads when they are looking to buy an item online!” But how many knew or cared that they were clicking on an ad? The same article also states that organic results still get many more clicks overall than PPC.

Search Engine Watch cited numbers in the dominance of organic over PPC results (2012)

Screenshot 2015-01-08 15.55.40

Danny Goodwin also pointed out that there were large differences between branded and non-branded searches.

This difference led the Harvard Business Review to write a very dramatic headline question:

Screenshot 2015-01-08 15.59.27

The answer to which is, in a word, “NO”. This article shows eBay proving that they don’t benefit from paying for clicks from a search for the branded phrase “eBay” which really isn’t a surprise since a company like eBay is so well known as a brand name and appears organically right at the top of any search including its name. The article goes on to underscore the importance of non-branded PPC search phrases like “used les paul guitar” to eBay.

It’s this importance of PPC for non-branded phrases that make it so valuable for nearly any business. PPC makes it possible for any business to appear in a wide variety of non-branded searches. There are still a lot of examples of business’ ads appearing absurdly when they are irrelevant to a search. This problem is caused by improper configuration and testing of the advertising campaign. It’s really easy to goof this up but it doesn’t have to happen to you. In order to avoid this problem businesses should always use an experienced PPC firm like Search Engine Marketing Chicago, Inc.

Contact us for more information.

 

Posted on

What’s happening in online retail?

What’s happening in online retail?

There continue to be important new developments in online retail sales even after the nearly twenty years since commerce went online.

Brick and mortar retailers continue to struggle. Former powerhouses like Best Buy and Barnes and Noble appear to be in trouble largely due to their inability to compete effectively with Amazon and other online retailers.

An increase in the advantages offered by Amazon is close by as they roll out same day delivery in select markets. Walmart is also test marketing same day. Why go to a store at all?

Starting an online store has never been easier. sem[c] has worked successfully with a number of businesses creating online stores with Shopify. Can small retailers compete successfully with the giants?  The answer is a qualified “yes”. As in any competition the underdog needs to promote an effective point of distinction.

Google AdWords has given retailers even more powerful online ad capabilities with their recent changes to their Product Listing Ads. This gives even more precision control to the marketing reach of even the smallest online store.

What is a good strategy for such a store? How do you position it for success?

A small online store will offer a curated collection of items for sale. The nature of that curation will be one point of distinction. Some other areas that can be promoted as distinctions include price, unique selections and service.

Price is a very important distinction. Being the highest in a list of retailers offering similar or the same product will be unlikely to lead to very many sales. Being the lowest in the same list might lead to sales but definitely cuts your margin. Large firms like Amazon and Walmart change their prices continuously during peak retail seasons like Black Friday and Monday.

Your store will not have the same type of pricing problem if you offer unique items. This is possible in a number of different ways like bundling or white labeling. Being able to offer one-of-a-kind anything requires a great deal of creativity and can involve a great deal of risk. It may require a Kickstarter finance campaign.

Posted on

The reports of the death of SEO are greatly exaggerated

“SEO is going to die in two years” asserts no less an expert than “one of the top SEO consultants in Utah”. This must be true because Utah, as everyone knows, is the center of the online marketing industry. Actually, when you read what was written after the headline the only thing being said is that SEO is changing due to the inclusion of social media statistics. What a surprise!

The same reason that led Mark Twain to say: ” The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” exists today. The death of something makes a great headline. The truth really isn’t a factor in a great headline. Unless you confused “truth” with Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness”. This “death of SEO” headline is especially popular with purveyors of social media marketing and content marketing who would like people to think that their specialty is more important than SEO.

But when they include phrases like “To be clear, keyword research and internal linking strategy still matter, but they probably only control 15% of your website’s overall ranking” it doesn’t really seem anything has died, does it? They are talking about how important a tool SEO is in social media and content marketing. They are using the word “probably” in an unsupported guess about rankings. Google doesn’t share the weighting percentages of their ranking algorithm so where does this weaselly “stat” of 15% come from? Thin air evidently. They go on to say that external links are more important but now include links from social media. None of this is anything very new. None of it suggest that SEO is “dying”.

So, we are to believe without any evidence that the “death of SEO” is going to be the result of including social media more in the weighting of links from other sites? Even though the giant Facebook is a walled garden that search penetrates in a small way and inconsistently at that? Actually, not at all. The fact is that social media and content have been parts of SEO since the days of AOL.

SEO, at least as practiced by sem[c], is about clearly stating online what your business does so that people know that they can buy what they need from you. This is easier said than done. So many businesses talk about who they think they are and why they are proficient without ever touching on “what’s in it for me?”. SEO by sem[c] helps businesses answer that question in the most effective way using all the tools of online communication: SEO, SMM & PPC in a unified and effective campaign.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion.  I prefer to work from facts.  The fact is that SEO is the most effective way to increase sales. Contact us to get SEO working for you.

Posted on

Is AdWords Too Expensive?

AdWords

The cost of running an AdWords campaign seems to be a concern to a lot of people … including both my clients and my prospects. Of course, this is one of the reasons that we think that organic SEO is such a great idea for businesses because it delivers qualified clicks with paying for each click.

This is in no way meant to denigrate the value of AdWords in any way. We always strongly suggest a small initial campaign that is designed to accurately discover the most important keyword phrases for your business.  This ensures that optimization will benefit your business in the best possible way. Once you are effectively optimized you can reduce your reliance on paid advertising. We think that’s a good plan, don’t you?

We recently enrolled in a program that Google has created to make our ability to help our clients maximize this benefit.  One thing (of many) they’ve made available is a great brochure explaining AdWords very clearly.  It’s available on our website at:

After you’ve read it you’ll probably want to ramp up traffic to your website with AdWords from sem[c].  When you work with us you’ll get the first $100 free!  Contact us today at 773-769-7362
Posted on

Did you know that search engine marketing could help a 501(c)(3) too?

I sat on the Board of the Edgewater Development Corporation for five years and co-chaired its Marketing Committee.  If you are familiar with not-for-profit organization you know that they are frequently (and increasingly) under funded.  So a Google Grant that I help arrange for the organization is coming in very handy.  It is an in-kind grant that powers an AdWords campaign on Google to up to $10,000 per month.  It has multiplied traffic to the website year-over-year again again. This goes a long way in promoting the mission of the EDC: to attract business to the Edgewater neighborhood.  It also has the benefit of increasing the total amount of funding to the organization that can be claimed in future grant applications.

Search engine marketing is effective for many small to medium sized for-profit businesses, too.  VisitSearchEngineMarketingChicago.com to read about some of the companies that we’ve helped market. Call 773.769.7362 to discuss what sem[c] can do for your business… be it for profit or non-profit.