Search engine marketing strategies and keyword-targeted ad performance

SEM

If you had to briefly explain Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to your great-grandmother or a young child, what would you tell them?

Search engine marketing is a lot like how people use special words to draw attention to specific ideas they want to communicate and convince people of. Just like a person will use a specific series of terms or words to describe something or convey meaning, the same is true of search engine marketing. Just like you speak words and people know what you mean, a website communicates what its contents are or what it can provide by how it uses language. And just like you are known by the words you sue and the way you describe things, the same is true of search engine marketing. The only exception is that websites are the source of the words and search engines are like the "voice" that gets them heard. The better a person is at communicating, the faster the people around them will understand. The same holds true with how well websites are understood by their use of good search engine marketing terms and concepts too.

2. Evaluate the following list of keyword-targeted text ads:

a. Rank Ads A, B, & C. according to which you think will perform best (#1) and worst (#3) on Live Search:

Ad A: Keywords:

USED BOATS ONLINE new boats, buying a new boat

Save Time & Money! Up-Front Pricing & the best Experience on the web!!!

www.boattrader.com

(Destination URL: http://www.boattrader.com/)

Ad B: Keywords:

Chocolate To Die For chocolate, gourmet candy, lake Champlain

Fresh handmade chocolates. Made in small batches for exceptional taste.

www.lakechamplainchocolates.com

(Destination URL: http://www.lakechamplainchocolates.com/)

Ad C: Keywords:

Wedding Florist wedding, boutonniere, flower girl

Unique designs, great prices, and selection. In suburban Washington!

www.mayflowersinc.com

(Destination URL: http://www.mayflowersinc.com/weddings/work_weddings.htm)

b. Define performance for this question:

#1 -- Ad C

#2 -- Ad A

#3 - Ad B

c. In 3-5 sentences, explain your rationale for ranking them as such.

Ad C. has the strongest relative keyword search attributes, keying off of the term "flowers" and also from the term wedding. This gave the ad the highest performance and relative ranking as well.

Ad A was second due to the strength of the word "boat" and the definition of new vs. old ones. The actual URL of boattrader.com however is not as strong as potentially other candidates for this website.

Ad B. was the worst performing ad due to its heavy reliance on Lake Champlain, which is a very competitive term. This ad would get lost quickly in the many other ads about this area. The placement of keywords throughout the ad also needs to be improved as well.

d. Choose two of the keyword-targeted text ads listed above and suggest opportunities for improving their efficacy.

On the Used Boats Online ad, the URL needs to have more specific information about boats for sale or boat-for-me.com as boat-for as a term gets 30.4M searches a month globally. This would also personalize the ad and make it more specific to a given customer.

On the Lake Champlain Chocolate, the addition of the term chocolates would alone lead to the ad being part of a much broader keyword search. The term chocolates for example gets 6.1M global searches a month alone. The Lake Champlain reference limits the search as well. The ad would be better written to include more on the types of chocolates they sell and what makes them unique. This would help overall SEO rankings.

3. List the top 10 keywords you would use to advertise for each of the following and explain your reasons behind choosing those keywords.

a. MSNBC wants to drive traffic to their portal

Market news

Financial news

Investment

Shares

Stocks

Stock Shares

Stock Prices

Stock Market

Stock Market Data

Stock

These terms all have monthly global search volumes over 5M and would provide CNBC with the best possible support for its brand as a corporate information source.

b. Microsoft Internet Explorer is a well-known brand and wants highly qualified customers downloading their product

The following terms have the highest number of global monthly searches:

Explorer -- 45.5M

ie -- 37.2M

Internet explorer -- 30.4M

Internetexplorer -- 13.6M

Internet Explorer Download -- 2.74M

ie browser -- 2.74M

Browsers -- 2.74M

Browser download -- 1.83M

Internet explorer browser -- 1M

Webbrowser -- 1M

c. Microsoft wants to promote their brand office -- 151M

Word -- 124M

Excel -- 55.6M

Database -- 24.9M

Microsoft Office -- 16.6M

Office 2010 -- 13.6M

project software - 11.1M

business software -- 823K

erp -- 7.4M

CRM -- 5M

4. Windows Mobile is launching a search engine marketing campaign in Q4 of 2010 to drive online sales and increase qualified clicks in time for the holiday season & to promote the launch of Windows Phone 7. For more information about Windows Mobile, please see: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/

On smartphone -- 9.1M

These terms taken together form a foundation of the search optimization strategy for the Windows Mobile launch in that they concentrate on each key differentiating elements or tenants of the product strategy. The aspects of freedom are critically important to effectively position the Windows 8 operating system as a viable alterative to Apple iOS and Google Android. The fact that Windows 8 Mobile operating system is also more customizable than its competitors is also a significant selling point as well. The htc platform is also essential for Microsoft's efforts in mobile as well. Finally the terms smartphone, what is a smartphone, and on smartphone all provide the product line with a solid foundation for SEM strategies.

c. Now, pick two of those keywords and write specific ad copy for each keyword according to the following specs:

What is Freedom

i. Line One: What is Freedom On Your Terms?

ii. Line Two: The Power to Connect & Share iii. Line Three: Text messages, e-mails, Pictures, Videos

iv. Line Four: whatisfreedomphone.com

v. Line Five: freedomphone.com

What is Smartphone

i. Line One: What is Smartphone Freedom? Microsoft

ii. Line Two: The power to connect, share & live iii. Line Three: Bringing your imagination alive

iv. Line Four: whatissmartphone.com

v. Line Five: whatissmartphonemicrosoft.com

5. A marketing exec for Nokia does not think she needs to bid on her company's trademark keywords. In 3-5 sentences, how would you explain the impact that decision could have on the success of her campaign?

Your competitors already are and you are already running behind if you think you don't need to. Expect them to show up before you in your search results, and this would most likely include Google, who knows a thing or two about search engine technology. You have to remember you are competing with the world's best search engine technologists who can easily slant the search results for Android and their entire phone strategy on that operating system. By not taking action, Android has already won. And this doesn't even take into account Apple, another lethal competitor.

6. When would you suggest using negative match for keywords? Please give a specific example of a keyword and a related negative match.

The intent of using negative keywords is to trim back the number of items returned in a search, making the results delivered more relevant. The example shown below illustrates how a search of the New York Yankees could be made more relevant by removing the local New York football teams.

Negative keywords: New York Giants, New York Jets

7. Using the information provided in the attached Excel spreadsheet, please answer the following questions:

a. What is the clickthrough rate (CTR) for the keyword, Rock Band 2? Please illustrate the formula used to derive your answer.

CTR = (Clicks/Impressions) x 100

.15 = (16,797/110547) x 100

b. What is the CTR for the overall campaign?

.046 = (575,082/12,282,679) x 100

c. What is the CPC for the keyword, Xbox 360? Please illustrate the formula used to derive your answer.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

(Clicks/Cost) = CPC

28,564/$9,850.36 = $2.89

d. How many sales would it take to drive an $8 cost per acquisition (CPA) for the keyword, Rock Band 2, at the given spend level?

It would take 80 sales a day to drive an $8 cost per acquisition.

i. If the CPA increases to $11.00, what is your new max CPC?

$31.79

ii. What is the ROI based on a $5,402 profit?

32.5%

e. Given the attached campaign results, write an email to your client that highlights at least three insights or optimization recommendations for the account.

To: Client

Subject: SEM Optimization Recommendations

Based on an analysis of the current strategies and keywords in place, the following three recommendations are made for increasing SEM performance.

1. It is highly recommended that the existing keyword advertisements be re-written for a more optimized set of keywords. Existing keyword advertisements are not performing at a profitable level today as a result.

2. The entire Q4 Shopping Campaign is inefficient and needs to be revamped with more effective use of keywords and better use of cost-per-click bidding. This would drive up the CTR for the entire campaign, which is exceptionally low today.

3. Consider using negative keywords to more effectively guide keyword searches on the Q4 Shopping Campaign as the relatively low click rate is driving down overall campaign performance