Optimising your search engine marketing

It still amazes me how many search engine marketeers merely focus on singular aspects of a search marketing strategy, such as traffic generation, or visibility. Whilst on some projects or within certain sectors, this is acceptable as a criteria for successm, it is becoming more and more commonplace for campaigns to be judged on ROI, on cost pers, and rightly so.

This is particularly the scenario with paid search management campaigns where customers are not merely paying for the service, they are paying for the traffic, and as such convertability in whatever guise it may come in, is fundamental when establishing the success of a campaign, and is a vital tool in establishing whether or not your campaign is correctly positioned.

However there are a number of simple things, that can be done in order to maximise your ROI across your search marketing campaigns

1) Web Analytics and stats are your friend

Stats are a fundamental part of any campaign we work on. If you were a pilot/sailor would you fly without either autopilot or a map - no I didn’t think so. Similarly with stats. Correct setup, analysis and planning based on behavioural and traffic stats and trends is fundamental in ensuring that campaigns are correctly focussed.

We have worked on a number of projects where early diagnosis of potential bottlenecks have been identified, and addressed quickly resulting in significant improvements to both ROI and traffic. If a customer has a bad experience on your website, it doesn’t just affect that particular visit, it may stop them from visiting your site again… and again… and again.

We have worked with a number of clients, where despite large figures being spent previously on marketing activity (aimed at driving traffic to the site), there has been no aspects of the ‘conversion process’ addressed, and ultimately these campaigns have failed to produce the expected ROI, and the subsequent failure of the sites put down to ‘customer preference’. Whilst this may be the case in more niche, or highly specialised industries, this site/customer (mentioned above), sits within a booming retailing sector where many of its competitors are fully exploiting the opportunities and benefits that online (and e-commerce) offer.

However stats really IMO come into their own in terms of the ongoing planning of a campaign. Regular reference to stats as regards user keyword activity, traffic sources, bounce rates and the like have been fundamental in ensuring that campaigns are correctly focussed, and optimised and that websites are not positioned in territory where traffic is either irrelevant or highly unlikely to either convert or result in significant brand awareness.

Regular reference to stats, including targeted goal definition, split testing analysis and subsequent planning and implementation won’t just improve the site, it will improve your ROI and ultimately the success of your online (and even offline) marketing activity.

2) Monitor, Monitor, Monitor

Online Marketing is often a long term piece of work, even in the case of paid search, and may require significant amounts of careful monitoring in order to ensure that they return what is expected of them. Never is this more apparent than within search marketing, where careful monitoring and analysis of phrasology can often open up unexpected sources of traffic and income.

Paid search in particular can benefit significantly from such activity. Careful analysis of customer behaviour can provide you with an overview of customer behaviour, such as when users tend to enter your site, what time(s) users tend to convert, and even when the highest percentage of users leave your site (obviously stats play an important part in this process). Such information could then be used to tailor visibility for certain periods of the day (by either turning ads on/off - or merely reducing/increasing the cost-per-click during applicable periods)

Monitoring should be taken particularly seriously - and if done properly will not only significantly increase your ROI, but also the time taken to manage your campaigns in the long run.
2) Test, Learn, Refine

You are very unlikely to get things right first time, particularly where paid search is concerned. This should never be seen as a sign of weakness, and rather more of an opportunity. Campaigns are like pets - they need to be looked after. As such constantly test your campaigns, learn from your mistakes/findings and refine your campaigns accordingly

Online marketing is a skill, and by incorporating such research into our everyday planning, we not only become a profession in our own right, I would suggest we earn the respect of more established sectors as well.

1 comment August 17th, 2007