What's the best approach
to managing a search marketing campaign?
A panel of experts shared best practices
gained through years of experience with
a wide range of clients.
Search marketing is more than managing
bids on ads. A campaign may involve both organic and
paid listings, perhaps with many different products,
goals and participants. This session at the recent SES
Chicago conference gave attendees tips and techniques on
managing the process and getting the most success out of
their campaigns.
Moderated by Michael Sack, the SVP and
Chief Product Officer of Inceptor, the panel featured
four executives from SEM agencies: David Williams, Chief
Strategist of 360i; Harrison Magun, VP and Managing
Director of Avenue A | Razorfish Search; Ani Kortikar,
Founder and CEO of Netramind; and Barbara C. Coll, CEO
of WebMama.com.
David talked about three key challenges
facing SEM agencies.
The first is organizational knowledge. He
asked, "If everyone in the organization does not have a
baseline understanding of search, how is it going to
ever be a strategic marketing initiative?"
David said people invest in what they
understand and are familiar with and test what is
unknown. Sometimes using an independent 3rd party can
help build organizational knowledge and buy-in. He
recommended, "Develop cross department education with
basic 101/201 sessions and ongoing education."
The second challenge is an integrated
search strategy. He asked, "Is there one overarching
search marketing strategy that is integrated with other
online and offline marketing initiatives? Or is your
search strategy in silos?"
David said campaign strategy will drive
tactical implementations as related to brand, keyword
bucketing, performance targets, and messaging. He added,
"Having one integrated search strategy allows for
maximum campaign impact and growth."
The third challenge facing SEM agencies
is data optimization. He asked, "Do you have ownership
of your data and the ability to optimize campaigns base
on all historical information?"
David said having ownership of data
allows marketers to make accurate forecasts and ROI
decisions that have maximum impact across all search
channels. He predicted, "Data management and
optimization is the future of search, especially as
search develops!"
David added, "Search marketers can now
use sophisticated statistical modeling to take advantage
of current market inefficiencies. We typically see a
20-50% lift against actively managed campaigns."
David said, "We typically put some 'core'
keywords into one bucket and say that for branding
reasons we want to always be #1 (based on client egos)."
He added, "For retail clients we usually
assign each product a bucket and within those buckets we
further break things down into the high volume terms
that have a lot of searches but low ROI and the lower
volume, tail terms with a high ROI."
He continued, "We want to have some of
the broad terms with lots of searches in the campaign
because they do drive volume, but we want to separate
them into an ad group where we can manage the budget on
those words so as not to overspend on them and kill the
overall ROI."
To set search up for success in 2006,
David recommended:
-
Build your organization's search
marketing knowledge for paid search, SEO, etc.
-
Develop a fully integrated search
marketing strategy that does not look at search in a
silo.
-
Leverage historical data and
sophisticated statistical modeling to take advantage
of market inefficiencies and product abnormal
returns.
David concluded, "A focus on education,
strategy, and data will be the key to your success!"
Harrison spoke next about his "rule of
4."
His 1st rule of 4 is "define success."
Harrison said this should include:
His 2nd rule of 4 is "make a plan."
However, before you make a project plan, Harrison said,
"Know your levers!" These include:
With these levers in mind, he said, "Now
create that project plan," and "Always stick to the
plan." Then, he admitted, "You can't always stick to the
plan." SEM agencies have to be reactive as well as
"proactive." He recommended, "Be realistic with
trade-offs." When making these, he counseled, "The plan
is your currency."
His 3rd rule of 4 is "measure results."
This involves measuring and communicating "at least"
every week:
Harrison's 4th rule of 4 is "get
feedback."
He said to ask for feedback "even if you
know the answer." He also suggested asking for it from
ancillary constituents as well as from the main
constituents. Then, incorporate feedback into the
project plan
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Greg Jarboe is the
co-founder of
SEO-PR,
a search engine optimization company and public
relations firm that specializes in news search, blog
search and vertical search.
