In Marketing Matters, Michelle O'Hagan and Jonathan Thomas write about SEO, social media and analytics and why they're a critical part of any custom publishing program.
The High Cost of Facebook PPC
12 Mar 2010
by Timothy Nolan
Recently there has been a large social media push within the world of marketing. Companies are flocking to Facebook and Twitter trying to interact with their customers where they reside, virtually speaking. They are doing this and doing it for great reasons. They can provide customer service, repair damaged company image, gain useful knowledge about products they intend to rollout, find out what products their clients want to see, etc, etc. However, there is a dark side to the benefit.
As an Analytics, SEO and PPC specialist, I am often confronted with measurement dilemmas. Facebook PPC is one of those dilemmas. In my trials and tribulations, I have discovered that the reporting on Facebook is not nearly robust enough to get accurate and in-depth information from people clicking on the ads. When a visitor encounters an ad, they have two options, clicking on the title of the ad or clicking the “Become a Fan” button (depending on the type of ad). When the user clicks the “Become a Fan” button, they are automatically registered as a fan of the respective fan page. However, if they click the ad title, they are taken to the fan page where they then have the option to fan the page or not. The company is charged for a click for either option the user chooses. Facebook does not distinguish between these two options.
Facebook "Fan" Ad
So let’s see, if someone were to click on the title of the ad, arrives on the fan page and then fans it, Facebook does register click. But if someone clicks on the title of the ad, arrives on the fan page and leaves, Facebook also registers this as a click. This is where the reporting becomes an issue. Organizations are charged for a click on the ad for both scenarios but Facebook does not differentiate the two. Thus a click on the ad does not equate to a new fan. This would normally be fine, but the only way to find out if a fan was added is by checking the wall on the fan page.
While conversions may be lost in any PPC campaign that is run, the reporting for most (if not all) sites gives a distinction between who converted and who didn’t. Facebook does not offer this distinction. In the digital world where everything can be measured, where is Facebook and why are they light years behind? When offering solutions for businesses to gain access to their consumers, wouldn’t you think Facebook would ensure that the metrics can be easily measured and relayed? This is the cutting edge of business-consumer interaction and yet we seem to be stuck in 2004. Facebook needs to get its act together especially when it is offering business solutions. And though the cost per click on Facebook is relatively low, the cost of a lack of knowledge is growing exponentially.
What Is Your Most Important Metric?
19 Feb 2010
by Jonathan Thomas
It’s a question any organization should be able to answer, but often it’s one of the hardest questions to answer.
Some organizations spend marketing dollars without a clear metric they’d like to measure. They just want marketing.
But you can’t measure success unless you know what that success is.
So, when it comes to your online marketing efforts, what are you trying to achieve, and what’s the most important metric to measure?
Every situation is different, so here are some examples of metrics that are important to our clients.
Generally, clients care about pageviews, visits and traffic sources. However, the most important conversion metric for one of our clients is how often a video is viewed – how often the play button is pressed. For that one metric, we use Google Analytics to examine traffic sources, search keywords, etc. That metric is the center of our reporting and it is how the client measures the success of their marketing efforts.
Another client wants Facebook fans. Pageviews, time on site, etc. are less important to them. They just want a large audience, all of whom have opted-in for marketing promotions.
Some small businesses that I’ve worked with want their websites to work as a lead generation tool. They are less concerned with raw traffic and more concerned with completed contact forms and how many of those inquiries turn into new business for them.
For many organizations, though, it comes down to one metric: Unique Visitors. This number drives advertising sales, brand awareness and authority. But it’s not the be-all end-all. You can have a website with 2 million visits a month but if your visitors aren’t doing what you want them to do – if they’re not converting – then what’s the value in 2 million visits?
For successful online marketing in any organization of any size, ask: What is the most important metric? Build from there.
Choosing Between Woopra Analytics and Google Analytics
10 Feb 2010
by Jonathan Thomas
Why choose one over the other?
Let me explain.
I’ve been using Google Analytics for years now and I love it – so much that I’ve had some pretty high level training in its use and implementation. It’s an awesome analytics package and I prefer it over Omniture. We recommend using Google Analytics to all our clients and have become industry leaders in implementation.
However, I’ve been personally using Woopra Analtyics for about six months now and I love it too. I use both of them to measure traffic on one of my bigger blogs and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve even turned into a paying Woopra customer and as someone who is usually pretty cheap, that’s saying a lot.
They both have strengths and weaknesses that compliment each other. Google Analytics is free. Woopra is not. Google Analytics has more advanced features than Woopra. Woopra cannot do flash event tracking (yet). It’s easier and more straightforward to pull historical reports in Google Analytics versus Woopra.
Google Analytics biggest weakness is that it does not give you live statistics, results are delayed by a day. You can check your traffic during the day, but the numbers have a huge lag and aren’t very useful.
Woopra, however, provides you a live picture of what is happening on your website RIGHT NOW. At any given time you can see how many people are on your site and what they’re doing. Their desktop app is very powerful and useful – I keep it running at all times in the background so I can keep an eye on things. GA doesn’t have it’s own dedicated app.
Google Analytics also doesn’t provide many details on user behavior – mostly for privacy reasons. In Woopra, you can identify your visitors, tag them, track them, look at their site history, you can even chat with them (though I don’t think I would ever do this).
Now, how about differences in the data? Are the numbers the same? Generally, I’ve experienced a 5-10% differential in the data between the two packages, which I believe is well within a good margin of error. Usually Woopra is the one that reports higher numbers.
Besides, as everyone in Analytics should well know, web analytics isn’t about exact numbers – it’s about trends and statistics.
So, if you’re debating whether to install one over the other – why not install both? It’s just a snippet of code and it won’t slow down the usability if your site. You’ll discover some very interesting things about your sites.
Find out more about Google Analytics Here.
Find out more about Woopra Analytics Here.
Marketing (Online) Matters
13 Jan 2010
by Michelle O'Hagan
In case there’s still anyone out there who believes social media/social networking is:
- a fad
- for kids
- for B2C, not B2B
instead of a pervasive shift in how all people communicate with each other, now comes yet another eMarketer report, Social Network Ad Spending: 2010 Outlook , that should put those beliefs out to pasture.
One of the most important findings concerns marketing, not advertising:
According to eMarketer:
“… paid advertising in social networks—banners, text ads and search advertising, as well as the more targeted advertising being deployed by Facebook and MySpace—is only a fraction of the spending … The researcher estimated marketers spent $800 million in 2009 on social network, word-of-mouth and conversational marketing, up more than 23% over the previous year. Further growth of 35% is expected for 2010 to more than $1 billion.”
Long story short: Marketers are spending truckloads of money to create demand online in social networks, because that’s where their prospects (consumers and business people of all ages and walks of life ) are.
Demand creation using social media and social networks is no fad, and it is not exclusive to any particular demographic.
Things are looking up. 
Google to Personalize ALL Search Results
8 Dec 2009
by Michelle O'Hagan
Take a look at today’s blog post from SEO Roundtable: Google is now personalizing search results for all users by default. Which means a search performed on 10 machines could pull up 10 different results pages.
Previously, Google was personalizing results only for users logged in to their own Google Accounts. Now, by default, Google will customize search results for every user based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in the browser.
To say Google is trying to discourage rank-checking is an understatement. Too early to tell if this development will automatically favor websites with a huge reach, or if it will help to meet the needs of each and every searcher. Or both.
Google Adword Optimization
3 Nov 2009
by Timothy Nolan
Google Adwords: Quick Glance
“Ah ha! I found you!” Like children playing hide-and-go-seek, individuals searching on Google want to be able to find what they are looking for right away. This usually means in organic search and search engine optimization (SEO) to be in the top three results. And everyone is gunning for that number one spot.
But when individuals are looking to make purchases or get information they need quickly, they tend to draw their eyes to the right side of the page on Google (in case you were wondering that is the “Sponsored Links” location). Interestingly enough, many top Google Adwords professionals will tell you that being the top or even the second link will harm your chances of conversion. Whether or not you believe it, you are actually able to save money and generate greater conversions.
How and why does that happen you ask? Well simply put, when people see the top sponsored links on Google, they tend to be of lower quality traffic – more reactive than educated. When it comes to some keywords, being between the third and fifth spots can save large amounts of capital in ad positioning. And this doesn’t include the fact that when someone does click your ad you will have a higher opportunity of converting.
Adwords to Organic
Getting back on the topic of organic SEO, keywords used in Google Adwords campaigns could definitely assist in the site side optimization (SSO). This is a great way to find out which words will bring the most relevance to your website.
Ranking Optimization
Here’s how to optimize Google Adwords rankings:
1. Keyword selection
2. Ad placement between 3 and 5
3. Landing Page optimization (SSO)
4. Test, test, test the ads and then test again
These are just a few simple tasks that can be used to optimize your Google Adwords Campaign. As far as that number one spot organically, well that is a discussion all its own – check back with me on that…
Google Adwords: The Conversion Comes First
20 Oct 2009
by Timothy Nolan
It may sound like a “Captain Obvious” statement, but when developing a Google Adwords campaign (or any online marketing strategy for that matter) it is essential to create goals and define conversions, for the following reasons:
1. Analytics: Meaning and Purpose
When looking at trends and analyzing data for an internal site or external client, the numbers mean nothing without context (a conversion rate). I have been looking through some of the campaigns for a major client. The numbers themselves seem to be moving in a positive direction, but without an identified end result I have no way of interpreting any of the trends.
2. Keyword Success
Perhaps you have been looking at your Adwords campaign thinking, “How can I ever increase these numbers?” It is much easier to analyze data that already exists. With goals, funnels, and conversion rates established, it is easy to tweak and test new ad groups against the current successful ones. By establishing goal conversions you can notice keyword success and decrease costs.
3. Visitors vs. Clients
Just as an established sales cycle helps companies close sales quicker, studying conversion rates is the key to quickly turning clicks into revenue streams. The conversion “ding” in your Analytics account will help to identify where that individual came from, what they looked at, and how they ended up converting. Now you can use that information to gain insights into what visitors are thinking.
Conversions Defined
Each one of these can be defined as a conversion:
- Download
- Purchase
- Sign-up/Subscribe
- View of a video(s)
- Click-thru
Don’t forget the landing page(s). A customized landing page and a prominent call to action makes it more likely visitors will follow your Reese’s Pieces (had to have an “E.T.” reference) to the end. But whatever the case may be, make sure that the goals are set on your end, and the path is illuminated on theirs.
The Magazine Business Really is Just Business
19 Oct 2009
by Michelle O'Hagan
This week, Advertising Age magazine’s cover story, The A-List, includes 10 magazines that “reach beyond the printed page to build a future as finely honed media brands.” The big winner: Women’s Health.
The article was an eye-opener for me because, although I’ve read all of the magazines on the list, I was wholly unaware of the fact that every one of them has become its own cross-selling empire. To be included on the list, a magazine must be operate as a brand, which may include the following:
smart licensing moves
becoming retailers in their own right
creating revenue-generating digital content
building smart cross-media content and ad platforms
finding a way to engage and monetize their communities
Whew! Even one of those things, (say, creating revenue-generating digital content) can be really, really difficult. And it goes to show that the magazine business is not really about magazines anymore: it’s about business.
It’s worth noting that every one of these publications has an intense editorial and creative focus on its readers. National Geographic isn’t trying to convert the FHM demo; National Geographic continues to excel at delighting a core constituency. It’s mission: exploration and conservation and bringing the wonders of the planet to people.
But, I’d guess that each of the magazines on the list has as many (or more) staffers dedicated to biz dev, technology, measurement and analysis as they do for editorial and design. It takes constant measurement and analysis to know if and when something is working, and to know when to adjust or pull the plug if something is not working.
National Geographic, according to the article, has more than 550,000 Facebook fans, 20,000 Twitter fans, and more than 190,000 YouTube subscribers. It also has ancillary publications, (”Adventure” and “Traveler”) and a cable television station. Think about what that means for measurement and analysis.
Consumers expect to be able to access to their favorite content in numerous delivery channels. They also expect content providers to reach out to them where they live (Facebook, Twitter, cable channels, iPhone apps).
And now, a question: Will it ever make sense again, in any circumstance, to start a new magazine on its own, without an integrated marketing plan that includes numerous content delivery channels? I can’t see it.
Just Because Google’s Matt Cutts Says Meta-Keywords Don’t Matter Doesn’t Mean They’re Not Important
23 Sep 2009
by Jonathan Thomas
Matt Cutts managed to shock the SEO world yesterday by confirming something that many of us already suspected, that Google does not use meta-keyword data to determine it’s search rankings.
Back in the early days of SEO, people discovered that they could easily game a search engine by manipulating meta-keywords. The Search Engines caught on quickly and that pretty much ended the prominence of meta-keywords in search results.
And now, Google says they don’t care about meta-keywords and in fact, it hasn’t used them in years.
But just because Google doesn’t care about your meta-keywords doesn’t meant that they don’t have value – SEO or otherwise.
Here’s our reasons why you should still spend time developing your meta-keywords.
1. They Help YOU
Taking the time to write your meta keywords will force you to sit down and think about what content will be on a given page. It will give you ideas for how to target your content and overall give you an idea of what a page, and your site in general is going to be ‘about.’ Those are all factors that will help you develop the best search engine targeted content.
2. Google Is Not the Only Search Engine
While Google drives a huge percentage of organic traffic, we must not forget that there are still many other search engines out there – and I’m not just talking about Yahoo and Bing. Google may be forsaking using meta-keywords, but that doesn’t mean that every other search engine doesn’t use them. Other search bots may expect those keywords to be there – so, they should. You never know if your next biggest client will come through some obscure search engine you’ve never heard of.
3. Bot Friendly
Your site gets crawled by more than just search bots – it’s constantly being crawled by many other services, whether its RSS bots, blog indexers, etc – those bots count on your meta keywords being there to get an accurate picture of what’s on a page.
4. Using Web Services and Social Media
Many social media websites and other web services that utilize your web content take advantage of tags to help parse your profiles. When it comes to submitting your website to all these services, oftentimes the easiest thing to do is to use your meta-keywords as tags. They’re already written and they’re already there. It saves you having to write them over and over for the many social media websites out there.
5. Baseline for PPC
Another way they help you is when it comes time to setup a PPC campaign. The best place to find keywords to get you started is to look no further than your meta-keywords. They will provide a good springboard in developing your keyword lists for all your PPC campaigns.
So, there you have it. While Google may be flushing meta-keywords down the toilet – they’re still useful and we will continue to recommend to our clients that they’re developed.
