Search Marketing Strategies

Broken URLs & 404 Errors

Ahh, the dreaded 404 error. Nothing is more irritating for a shopper to click on a dead link or land on a out of stock product page. The buyer gets frustrated, and in addition to losing a potential sale, the brand gets hurt as well. You spent good money to bring the buyer to your site, just to lose them immediately by displaying a 404 or file not found error. Unfortunately, it happens all the time.

So how to prevent this? For the paid searching marketer, it's challenging to manage a large campaign of thousands or tens of thousands of product terms, and make sure all of the active keywords are for in stock products. I have clients for whom a hundred products may go in or out of stock every week. There are several things you can do to minimize the likelihood of clicks to dead product pages.

1. Product Feed: I ask all my clients to send me a product feed on a regular basis. By comparing the old product feed with the new one, I can quickly identify the products that are no longer in stock, or new products. If the product feed is connected to your paid search campaigns, you can keep the two in sync. At ChannelAdvisor, we have a solution that allows us to automate pausing keywords that go to an Out of Stock page.
2. Category Pages: When it's appropriate, consider using a category page instead of a product page as your landing page. As long as there aren't too many products displayed on the category page, conversion may actually be higher, even on searches for a very specific product. Buyers appreciate the additional choice of products, and should the original product go out of stock, at least there are other similar product available.
3. Validate URLs Regularly: Check all URLs in the account and look for dead links or out of stock messages. We have scripts we use at ChannelAdvisor that can check large numbers of URLs easily and quickly.

written by Jason James -- jason.james at channeladvisor.com

Common Myth Busted!

People believe that if you see a paid search ad on Google you can “cheat” to get to the landing page while avoiding the click cost. They assume that if you right click on the ad and copy the link location (under properties) to another browser you can view the landing page while avoiding the charge because you didn’t actually “click.”

This is NOT true!
Google confirmed that you do get charged for that click. So consider yourself warned.

written by Erin Gordon -- erin.gordon at channeladvisor.com

Paid Search and the Value of Site Visits

The vast majority of all online retail paid search campaigns are judged on a few key success factors – orders and revenue and investment return.  There are many tactics used in order to drive conversions, increase average order value and ultimately increase the bottom line.

There are, however, some verticals that pose more of a challenge when it comes to closing the sale.  Are you offering free shipping? Are you the cheapest shop on the web?  Is your landing page crowded or confusing? – these are but a few of the obstacles that stand in the way of turning searchers into customers.

Should you jump ship?  Throw in the towel?  Cut your budget?  Rely more heavily on SEO?  Absolutely not.

Have you considered the fact that clicks = site visits = increased brand name awareness = customer lifetime value.

Let’s compare with an offline, broadcast campaign (TV, Print, Radio, etc.).  If a car dealership needs to increase revenue, sales, reduce inventory, etc., many hire an agency to develop messaging to spread the word.  The agency does its job by advertising all the messages needed to get people in the door, and in the door they come. 

The word is out, people are visiting the dealer, they’re asking questions, they look around……but they’re not buying.

It’s a total loss!  All of those advertising dollars are wasted!

No, they’re not.  Even though revenue / sales numbers may not have hit the target, there was a substantial increase in foot traffic to the dealer.  Those that didn’t purchase now have the name of the dealership in their heads.  When they DO plan on making a purchase, your chances of winning that sale are much greater than if they were have never visited before – establishing a lifetime value.  Lifetime value is the total net benefit that a customer, or group of customers will provide a company over their total relationship with a company

That same reward can be seen in the realm of paid search.  So your last attempt at campaign optimization didn’t raise sales or orders.  Did impressions, clicks and click through rate increase?  If yes, you had an increased number of eyes on your site.  Was there an increase in newsletter signups?  Were there an increased number of emailed questions? 

James Lamberti, SVP, Search and Media of ComScore drew attention to this subject in a recent interview: “Just because search is measured as a direct response and a cost per click, doesn't mean that's it's full value. I think if brands would understand that actually the contribution to my overall sales or the lifetime value contribution is fifty times what I currently measure, you would certainly get their attention. To me it's about understanding the value.”

Try to put a dollar value on a site visit, a newsletter signup, an emailed question, etc.  Then, you will realize that there IS value in a click, even if it doesn’t lead to an immediate sale.

written by Dennis Hayes -- dennis.hayes at channeladvisor.com

Privacy & Personalization

I, {State Your Name}

In the classic 1970s movie "Animal House", the inept pledges of Delta House couldn't manage to follow directions. When asked to repeat the house pledge, the repeated it exactly as it was told to them. "I, state your name, do hereby pledge allegiance to the frat." In today's world, personalization in online advertising is becoming more and more possible and sophisticated to the point of creating legitimate privacy concerns as well as opportunities for advertisers. Recently, the NY Times asked the big search providers if they could or would insert the user's name in paid search ads. Generally, they answered that it might be possible, but they are not (currently) interested in doing it. And it would only apply to users who are already logged in or cookied so that the site recognizes you. Microsoft could do it in such a way such that there was no actual personal data stored, but the user's perception might be of a loss of privacy.

Now this raises a host of privacy issues. How would users react if they saw ads that said, "Jason! Buy Widgets Now." or "Fred, We Have the Biggest Selection of Foobars." It sounds kind of creepy. Users should rightly be concerned if this data were made available to advertisers. And the extent to which the search providers are gathering this data on each person and building a profile of his or her habits and interests is concerning as well.

But privacy issues aside, would it actually convert better for retailers? It's impossible to know for sure without getting to test it, but in paid search advertising, the more relevant the ad, the more likely it is to get clicks, and to convert. There needs to be a call to action. It also needs to attract the user's eye, and I imagine that seeing your name in the ad would be very likely to attract attention.

The search providers would have to make a feature like this available to everyone or no one. There might be a benefit for all if it pulls some clicks away from the natural search results to the paid ads, so a feature like this could increase clicks for all advertisers and increase the search providers revenue. At that point, it becomes like steroids in sports. If personalizing the ad by including the user's name improves click through, then all advertisers will quickly adopt it. If everyone else is doing it, then you have to do it too, just to be competitive. Everyone is now using 5-10 characters of their precious ad text for the user's name.

In the end, it would be worth it to advertisers if it improves the user experience. By improving the user experience, advertisers can count on more relevant ads and better conversion. "With liberty and fraternity for all. Amen."

written by Jason James -- jason.james at channeladvisor.com

10 Popular Paid Search Myths

• Myth #1. Launching on new search engines is easy because the same strategy can be used across all engines.
• Myth #2. Paid search delivers immediate results.
• Myth #3. The more keywords in a paid search account the better.
• Myth #4. Using the same root keyword with various stem keywords is an effective way to increase clicks.
• Myth #5. Paid search advertising will improve organic search rankings.
• Myth #6. Bidding is the best way to a better quality score.
• Myth #7. You don’t need to bid on your brand name.
• Myth #8. Advertising on the search engine content networks works for everyone.
• Myth #9. Using generic ad copy is sufficient.
• Myth #10: Paid search works for everyone.

Download the "10 Popular Paid Search Myths" Whitepaper

written by Erin Gordon-- erin.gordon at channeladvisor.com

Separating the Fact from Fiction for Online Retailers

Often, theories or ideas are published within our industry making claims that are counter-intuitive and not grounded in factual data.  As search marketing professionals, we spend most of our time monitoring search engines, optimizing natural search results and auction marketplaces and managing pay-per-click search marketing campaigns. We also must consistently stay on top of changing factors, rules and perceptions.  When it comes to paid search myths and misunderstandings, it is our job to separate fact from fiction.

Throughout 2007, ChannelAdvisor managed over 22 million paid search keywords in numerous retail verticals ranging from electronics, to toys to jewelry.  Using the data gathered from our work, we can test the accuracy of these claims, offer proven, expert guidance and more accurately forecast future trends for our customers in 2008. The tried-and-true facts below will not only help you with keyword generation, bidding, brand awareness ad copy design, but also with effective strategies to fully capitalize on the paid search marketing opportunities in front of you.