by Elliott Easterling, CEO

I recall the first day I opened up AdWords almost 6 years ago to test out the self service functions. That feeling of bliss came to me again when I explored Facebook’s self service tool for the first time last December.

Joy came to me with AdWords because I encountered the tool as a data driven marketer. I spent 3.5 years at Digital Impact (now Axciom Digital) learning the ins and outs of database marketing before I started Red Bricks Media. At the time, we were working with algorithms to process large amounts of user behavior and self-profile data to predict the best products to put into individual emails. This behavioral targeting experience is what got me excited about AdWords. I quickly realized that search queries were in fact behaviors that could be used to present targeted ads to potential consumers. I was amazed that I could tap directly into the flow of demand. The combination of powerful targeting and scale is what made Google such a useful tool for marketers.

Excitement came to me with Facebook because I recognized the same opportunity to build marketing programs with amazing targeting capabilities supported by significant scale. Facebook allows marketers to target users based on the content of their profiles. Rather than being fueled by behavioral data, Facebook campaigns are fueled by profile data. This data is incredibly clean and accurate because, in general, people do not lie about their interests on Facebook. They might exaggerate but they won’t likely lie because peer pressure from Facebook friends creates a system of accountability. The profile data in Facebook is especially powerful because it represents the brand of Facebook users. The things you put in your profile represent the things that are most important to you and also the way you see yourself and want to represent yourself to the world. Facebook profiles are the sum of passions, interests, and make up the brand of one. Facebook also provides a separate targeting axis - one that surrounds demographic data. Where you live, where you went to school, and every piece of data collected in the registration process is targetable on Facebook. This matrix of interest data and demographic data make for great user segmentation and targeting. See chart below.

Since users are not actively seeking out information on Facebook as they are doing on search engines, the click-through rates (CTR) tend to be lower. This limitation can be overcome using the sheer scale of available inventory on Facebook, which can yield great click volume even with low CTRs. From our experience, Facebook campaigns can realize good conversion rates because our campaigns heavily segment users into tight interest groups and then present compelling messages to those users. Our background in database marketing has given us an edge in developing and designing successful Facebook campaigns.

Is Facebook right for your business? It is, to the degree to which interests in Facebook correlate to an interest in your product or services. If, for example, you are in the business of selling tissues online, you may not get much out of Facebook’s targeting capabilities. No one is likely to wax poetic on the virtues on a clean nose on their profile. Alternately, if you sell tours of India, you will have access to the more than 2.8MM 18 and older Americans that that show “travel” as an interest in Facebook. Matched with demographic data, a campaign could even target users in San Francisco with customized messaging – “Explore our tours to majestic India, flights leaving from San Francisco daily.”

As performance marketers, we tend to focus more on media that drives conversions. Facebook also has the amazing ability to drive great branding, so let’s not rule out the campaign for the tissue company quite yet. Facebook branding and fan development warrant a separate discussion, which is forthcoming next month.

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By Andrew Leinicke, Senior Director and Joe Van Remortel, Vice President

Chances are good that your search engine marketing program is an underachiever. The growing complexity of search engine marketing can often result in higher costs and lower conversions. If your paid search campaigns have not accounted for the 20-25 variables that influence results they are likely candidates for reassessment.

Deciphering the root causes of search engine marketing performance is not easy. In fact, many seasoned search engine marketers miss opportunities for campaign improvement because they stray away from core performance-enhancing principles and fail to migrate campaigns through the dynamics of efficiency and volume.

Performance Enhancing Principles

The upshot is that marketers can boost the performance of their search engine marketing and PPC campaigns by 30%-50% or more by acting on four fundamental tenets of PPC advertising.

1. Simplify the Inherent Complexity of Search Engine Marketing

Search engine algorithms, policies and functionality are in a continuous state of evolution. And with 20-25 variables (such as match type, messaging relevancy, bid strategy) influencing search campaign performance, your PPC program becomes a complex, dynamic system that requires insightful management. Success is earned through finding the unique set of performance variables that drive efficiency and volume.

2. Iterative Campaign Management Influences Performance

There is no magic wand to wave over a search campaign to generate immediate, breakthrough success. A common pitfall in search engine marketing is an over-reliance on technology and automation. Automation can create process efficiencies, but too often campaigns are auto-piloted right into mediocrity, as the value of insightful human intellect is discounted. Cultivating new opportunities are what sophisticated PPC strategists do. Keyword universe segmentation as well as testing and landing page optimization are never complete.

 3. Messaging Relavancy is a Critical Performance Factor

In the beginning, there was keyword research: a means to build a semantic foundation for your PPC campaign. Visitor quality and conversion rates are directly correlated to the consistency of the relationship among keywords, queries, ads and landing pages. Thus, “messaging relevancy” greatly influences conversions, ROI and quality score. Get control of your messaging relevancy and you will go a long way to improving performance. 

4. Focus on Relative Value to Optimize Yields

Don’t become mesmerized by the most obvious metrics. Develop a portfolio of high-yield campaigns based not on click-through rates, but on customer value generation. Measure and optimize the highest order campaign metrics—customer acquisition, revenue, cost savings to make true ROI optimization decisions. Investigate relative campaign performance at the adgroup level, and then apply a performance-tiering approach to restructure the campaign to give you more control over feeding the winners and starving the losers.

Efficiency-Volume Matrix

When working with existing campaigns, Red Bricks Media applies these methods through the looking glass of our Four Quadrant PPC Analysis™. This approach is designed to identify the core drivers of PPC success and develop strategies based on the advertiser’s industry and location on the Four Quadrant diagnostic grid. Our Four Quadrant methodology assesses PPC campaigns along two critical dimensions: efficiency (cost) and volume (conversions). All PPC campaigns strive to be in Quadrant 1 in the matrix below—a state of maximized volume and efficiency. Our diagnosis places each campaign in one of the four quadrants. Depending on its location in the matrix and campaign parameters, we prescribe a specific set of strategies and tactics aimed at migrating campaigns to Quadrant 1.  

For example, in the matrix above, a company in a highly competitive, mature sector—consumer banking, mobile phone services, or retail — is likely to have PPC campaigns constrained in Quadrant 4.  

As depicted, our approach uncovers the key performance drivers and inhibitors, and then conceives an improvement program built on moving the campaign to Quadrant 1, with expanded volume and improved efficiencies. One must first analyze past and current performance data in light of current inventory and CPC rates in order to properly locate a campaign on the grid. Experiential knowledge of PPC campaigns and rigorous testing and optimization scenarios expose the success drivers and inhibitors that power the migration to greater levels of success.

The benefits of this approach can be significant. In a recent case when Red Bricks Media adopted an existing search program for an entertainment client, we applied the methods described above. The program had been deemed optimized, but, in fact, was languishing in Quadrant 3. Within six months, the Red Bricks Media team reduced the cost-per-click from $1.24 to $0.19, while more than tripling campaign volume. In order to achieve such results under the old campaign regime, our client would have been required to invest an additional $2.8 million. That is found money.

Search engine marketing isn’t getting more simple, but rather more complex. The way to penetrate that complexity—and simplify campaign management—is to focus on the four principles described above. Structuring that analysis within the Four Quadrant model enables campaign strategists to identify a powerful set of performance-enhancing strategies and tactics that can turn the underachieving campaign into an overachieving success.

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by Craig Hordlow, Chief Strategist, and Ed Kim, CEO

The senior thought leaders at Red Bricks Media gathered in the beginning of the year to hold a round-table discussion about 2009 digital marketing and online trends.

There are some very common predictions made by search marketers for 2009, most notably advertising budgets taking a hit as a result of the economy.  Our list of predictions explores the nuances of some of the blanket statements made about 2009.

1.    Online ad spending gainers and losers: There has been a lot of talk about the impact of the economy on online ad budgets, the theme typically being that traditional marketing budgets will be cut if not re-appropriated to measurable online campaigns. We made the following predictions by channel, based on our observations of the industry and hands-on experience managing client campaigns:
a.    Paid search advertising spending will increase from $10B in 2008 to $12B in 2009.
b.    Display ad spending will barely increase: from $4.6B in 2008 to $5B in 2009.  As ad rates decrease, publishers will increasingly offer more performance based buys.
c.    Video will experience the most explosive growth, from $587M in 2008 to $850M in 2009.
d.    Classifieds will take a hit, from $3.1B in 2008 to $2.9B in 2009.
e.    Lead generation spending will be about the same ($1.6B)
f.    Sponsorships will decrease from $590M (2008) to $510M (2009)

2.    More attention to SEO: SEO will become more competitive as companies (finally!) begin adequately investing in organic search.  Previously perceived as a long-term investment, SEO will become necessary for companies facing slashed marketing budgets and the challenge of accountability.

3.    Data portability will become a movement: What is data portability?  Simply put, as users traverse the web, they often have numerous user accounts, passwords, and profiles.  According to Dave Morin, a senior platform manager at Facebook, “[data portability] is about giving users the ability to take their identity and friends with them around the Web, while being able to trust that their information is always up to date and always protected by their privacy settings.”  It’s also about being able to cross-leverage tools.  For example, a Skype user on Craigslist might be able to click a telephone number and have Skype begin dialing that number.  The possibilities are both seemingly endless and very realistic.

4.    Social networking will see several transformations:
a.    Facebook Connect – This is Facebook’s foray into data portability, which launched with partners Amiando, CBS.com, CNET, CollegeHumor, Disney-ABC Television Group, Evite, Flock, Hulu, Kongregate, Loopt, Plaxo, Radar, Red Bull, Seesmic, Socialthing!, StumbleUpon, The Insider, Twitter, Uber, Vimeo and Xobni.
b.    Enhanced self-service advertising platforms will be developed to increase revenue and lower overhead.

5.    Google will make significant enhancements to its tools:
a.    Google AdPlanner will offer display buyers more tools (whereas before, the tools catered mostly to PPC marketers)
b.    AdWords editor (currently at version 7.0) will have many more features developed (watch for geo-targeting enhancements)
c.    Google Analytics will continue to expand and minimize the differentiators between itself and its fee-based competitors

6.    Print will continue its Titanic sink into digital:

a.    In October 2008, the Christian Science Monitor became the first national newspaper to announce a move to a Web-only daily distribution strategy.   More publishers will go this route or reduce their publishing frequency.

b.    Amazon’s digital reader, the Kindle, sold out in December 2008 and is currently unavailable until late April 2009. It represents the first giant step forward in a migration towards digital reading. We predict that electronic readers will be one of the top selling items in the 2009 holiday season, consequently setting up 2010 as the “iPod” year for digital readers.

7.    Startups in survival mode: The lack of capital, as evidenced by Sequoia Capital’s alarming message to its investment strategists, will place an emphasis on survival strategies rather than startups with innovate ideas.  2009 will be a “lock down” year with far fewer startups introducing new ideas into the market.

8.    We will see a convergence between the internet and TV:
a.    The FCC has mandated that all TV signals must switch to digital by February 2009, a move which coincides with the increasing interplay between the television screen and the internet. Heavy TV users are also heavy internet users, often using both mediums at the same time. According to a recent Nielsen study, “early trends seem to indicate that online usage is complementing, not substituting for, traditional television viewing.”
b.    There is an opportunity for communication across these channels which before seemed so separate and siloed. Consumers are hooking their TVs up to their computers to enjoy a movie or TV show streamed from the internet. They are also going online to vote on TV shows that they are watching in real time. In the not-too-distant future, we may see shows like reality TV further harnessing the convergence between the two mediums by offering polls on a website that update in real time on TV, or vice versa. One device that is bridging the gap is the Roku, which allows users to download movies from Netflix to the Roku device and upload that content to the TV.
c.    The live video streams of Obama’s inauguration prove that audiences are turning to the internet for high-quality, up-to-the minute news. It also shows that video content providers have not yet figured out how to scale for a large volume of viewers; in 2009, they will need to find a solution.

9.    Video will continue on a path of explosive growth:
a.    As high-speed internet connections become the norm (broadband penetration is currently at 91.54 % in the U.S.), the demand for video content will grow. In 2008, the iPhone also paved the way for consumers to enjoy video content while on mobile phones. In 2009, consumers will continue enjoying video content both at home and on the go.
b.    We also predict that 2009 will be the year that video content distribution sites figure out a successful advertising and revenue model. Whether it’s a pre-roll, post-roll, or pop-up ads during the video, this is the year that video advertising will finally start to make sense.

10.    Agency consolidation will accelerate:
a.    With the recession, companies will move marketing dollars towards proven performance channels, demanding accountability on their marketing campaigns. Often, digital and performance-focused agencies provide the results that companies are looking for. Large holding companies and traditional advertising agencies will scramble to acquire digital shops to meet client demand and gain subject matter expertise.

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by Scott Tieman, Marketing Strategist

I suspect that many marketers sweat the “Launch” phase more than any other. They’ve seen other marketing efforts tank after tons of planning and want to get it just right. The bad news is that like with a book, the opening chapter of a paid search campaign sets the stage for what’s to come. Mess it up and the rest isn’t worth the bother. The good news is that it’s harder to mess up than most marketers expect. This post (and subsequent ones) will help you get your campaign on the right track from the start. Today, I’ll focus on marketing objectives.

As with any performance driven marketing campaign (and, regardless of media, I hope ALL of your marketing campaigns are performance driven), the first question to ask is “What are my marketing objectives?”. They come in all shapes and sizes, but I’ll generalize them as awareness, lead generation, and sales. Awareness is primarily the realm of brand marketers vying for more mind share, lead generation the realm of acquisition marketing, and sales the realm of acquisition and retention marketing.

Whenever we accept a new paid search client, I always hear the same thing. The client wants to focus on sales & leads. Period. The biggest misconception about paid search marketing is that it is ONLY a demand capture tool. This couldn’t be further from reality; it also functions just fine for awareness and demand generation.

Take awareness as an example. Marketers, depending on category, could pay upwards of $30-100 CPM for banner ads. True, banner ads are rich media and that’s got to count for something compared with bland, short form text ads. But, HOW MUCH MORE? For simplicity, say you pay $1 per click on your text ad. Also assume your click through rate (CTR) ranges from 0.5-5% for a given keyword. Finally say your ad shows 1,000 times over the course of a month. After some fairly simple math, you are roughly paying $5-$50 CPM. Already, this is significantly lower than the range I’ve spelled out above. Don’t forget that a lower CPC would drive even more cost savings.

Let’s take it one step further. The example above (assuming the CTR I spelled out) drove 5-50 people to your site. Each new qualified person is an opportunity for further brand education, lead generation, or sales. With paid search awareness campaigns, you will rely on your website more for the heavy lifting. That’s what you want. By comparison, typical banner ads generate clicks at a rate of 0.1%. Thus, you’ve spent significantly more money to drive only 1 person to your site. With paid search campaigns, you’re getting awareness AND traffic. Now doesn’t it seem like a better investment to put your awareness budget into paid search marketing rather than banner ads? Wouldn’t you prefer that your site do the marketing rather than a skyscraper ad?

In my next post, I’ll further explore this topic of marketing objectives. There’s lots more to say. Stay tuned.

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by Scott Tieman, Marketing Strategist

Most paid search campaigns evolve with time, information, and experience. Don’t expect to get the campaign absolutely right from the start. You can’t! You don’t have enough information! Paid search campaigns need to embrace trial and error to blossom. You may have all the experience in the world running paid search campaigns, but that alone will only take you so far in this business.

Generally, you can think about this evolution in terms of three distinct phases: launch, optimize, and sustain. Each phase should have its own goals, expectations, and challenges. Below, I’ve given a taste of how each phase will play out. In my upcoming posts, I will dig deeper into some specifics of each phase.

Launch Phase:

Calling the initial phase the “launch” phase is partly a misnomer. It generally includes all of the activities required to get a campaign up and running including the initial planning before the launch, the launch itself, and the campaign stabilization after the launch. Expect to spend about 1-4 months in this phase.

Optimize Phase:

You’ve gotten the campaign out the door, but now must meticulously care for it. During the “optimize” phase, you will see the greatest efficiency gains. These gains will come at the expense of trial and error. Try not to worry too much about the media budget spent on these tests. It’s not wasted at all. It’s the best money you’ve spent in the campaign so far. Expect to spend about 6-12 months in this phase.

Sustain Phase:

Congratulations! You’ve wrung out the last drop of insight; the campaign is seemingly on cruise control. Give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done then GET BACK TO WORK. The “sustain” phase is all about maintenance. Although the pace of intervention has slowed, you still need to keep your campaign fresh to maintain your performance results in the long run. In general, expect to spend the rest of the life of the campaign in this phase.

On final thought. Given the rapid change in the search landscape, your hard fought insights may become less relevant with time. Your audience may become more sophisticated or a competitor may outmaneuver you for clicks. Maybe the product landscape will change as well. Google may introduce some revolutionary new products that allows you to advertise on digital billboards, blimps, or the moon. When this happens, you may need to revisit parts of this process again. Don’t be stubborn about it. Just jump right in like you always do.

Note: This post pertains t0 the vast majority of paid search campaigns run today. There are some exceptions, most notably “blast” campaigns. These short-lived campaigns typically revolve around products with quick expiration dates like events and media. Given the daunting time constraints facing the marketer, the campaign will likely spend the most time in the “launch” phase and very little time in the “optimize” and “sustain” phases.

This article is cross-posted from Scott’s blog.

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Red Bricks Media has appointed Dan Weiner the new Managing Director of the company’s New York office.Prior to Red Bricks Media, Weiner held product and marketing roles at Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Idealab, and Priceline.com. In his most recent role, Weiner was Vice President of Sony BMG’s Online Media Network and was responsible for deploying new ad networks across the company’s hundreds of artist and label sites and developing compelling marketing offerings around its content and artists. He also launched a range of new content delivery and community tools, including the industry-leading Musicbox video network.

CEO Ed Kim is enthusiastic about Weiner’s leadership. “Dan is the perfect person to lead our New York office. He’s a creative and experienced professional who has pioneered online tools and properties for some of the world’s top media and web companies. I am confident that Dan will lead Red Bricks Media East to provide the same innovative marketing solutions and outstanding client services that characterize our other offices.”

Weiner is equally enthusiastic about his new role at Red Bricks Media. “I’m very excited to be joining the incredible Red Bricks team and building on their success in New York and the East,” he comments. “With the rapid emergence of nontraditional digital tools and channels, Red Bricks’ unique mix of rigorous performance marketing, great design, and technical depth offers a chance to develop ground-breaking new ways for marketers to reach and engage with consumers.”

Contact Dan at dweiner [ar] redbricksmedia.com.

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by Beth Morgan, Media Director

During the Web 1.0 boom it was all about the eyeballs. Content was king, and publishers scrambled to fill the Web with information and amusement that would lure people in. Now that we’re seeing the second rise of the Web, content is still king. But it turns out that, as has been common all throughout history, people are less interested in what someone else tells them than in what they and their friends are thinking and doing. Giving people the power to produce their own content and customize their own experiences, essentially democratizing the Web, has brought over 100 million new users to the Internet in the U.S. alone.

Which brings us to the most uniquely people-powered advertising vehicle the world has ever seen: paid search.

Pay-per-click is different from every other mode of advertising out there because the publisher only makes money if someone finds the ad relevant and interesting and clicks on it. The amount that the advertiser bids for each click does figure in to how often an ad runs and where it is placed, but an even bigger factor is how tempting and clickable an ad is. The people are in control! If you as an advertiser fail to interest your target market, they will not click on your ad—and even if you’re willing to pay a small ransom on every click, the engines might choose to not run it all.

So what does this mean for advertisers? Essentially it means that you must re-adjust the way you strategically think about your paid search campaigns, because things you’ve learned about how marketing works might not be true for search. Some examples:

1) Your ad might not show up every time you look for it. With traditional pay-per-eyeball advertising—TV, print, banner ads, etc—you agree to pay a set amount to advertise at pre-determined times and places for a set length of time. If you pick up a magazine or look at a website during that time frame, you will see your ad.

With paid search, though, the engines are unlikely to run your ad with every search, especially when you first launch a campaign. They are constantly running their mix of advertisers through a massive algorithm to determine, essentially, who earns them the most money. Proven advertisers are going to be given more credit than new ones. They’ll mix your terms in slowly, and then more and more if your ads are successful.

2) You might not WANT your ad to show up every time you look for it. Think about it: are you running ads because you want people to see your neat-o copy, or because you want to sell stuff in a cost-efficient manner? Paid search gives you great real-time data about how your ads are performing, which allows you to get rid of keywords that just aren’t working for you. You may think a certain keyword is absolutely vital to your business, but if those Empowered People don’t agree and don’t click on your ad, the price that Google charges you to keep your keyword in a high position may be more than it’s worth.

3) You don’t know ahead of time what you’re going to pay. Budgeting for traditional marketing is easy: you get X dollars to spend, you buy X dollars worth of placements, and then you look at the stats to see if it was cost-effective. Costs in paid search, though, are both variable and hard to estimate ahead of time. You could have $100,000 set aside for search, but if no one searches your terms or clicks your ads, you might end up spending only $2,000. Google and Yahoo do not provide any easy way to determine what kind of cost per click you might see before you actually launch your campaign. In addition, although Yahoo provides historical search counts on keyword terms, Google (which tends to have more searches) does not, so predicting the volume of traffic is also difficult.

4) If people are clicking on your ad, you’re hitting the right market. Because pay-per-eyeball advertising is so expensive, it is vital to examine where and when ads are running to find the places and the times that yield the best results. Day-parting is a savvy way to make sure your ads are hitting your target when they are present and paying attention.

With paid search, though, people declare themselves as potential customers not by visiting a website or listening to a radio program, but by actively searching for a term relating to your product. If they’re really interested they’ll click on your ad and visit your
site. This means that unless you have conversion data that shows visitors convert differently at different times of the day (which might very well be true), day parting isn’t a vital part of search strategy. You think your customers don’t wake up before 9am? Then they won’t be searching and clicking before 9am. Once again, the people decide when your ads run.

5) Rigorous and regular ad copy testing MUST be a part of your program. When I was traveling through Europe in college, my group would frequently be met at train stations by hordes of people from competing hostels, waving brochures and pictures to try to lure us back to their establishments. Paid search is pretty much just like that. At the very moment a searcher declares their interest in something, they are met with dozens of contenders clamoring to satisfy that need. Since Google and Yahoo both give better placement (and often a lower price) to ads that get more clicks, it behooves every advertiser to experiment to find out what will work best. Headline, call to action, benefits statement, even display URL—the smallest things can have a big effect. You also want to track results right through to conversion—ads that produce big clicks don’t always convert the best, and that’s the ultimate goal.

So as you can see, with paid search your potential customer is in a unique position to determine when and where your ad runs and even how much it costs. It’s a dynamic and powerful system, but also far less predictable than other forms of advertising. Figure out how to please your customer better than the competitors, and you will be rewarded with a brilliantly cost-effective marketing channel.

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by Sharon Crost, Account Director

Red Bricks Media made a splash at Search Engine Strategies (SES) in April 2007, providing thought leadership at two widely attended conference sessions, and sponsoring a local networking party during the conference week. SES is the leading conference and expo in our field that brings together thought experts and major players in the world of search. SES conferences are held throughout the world, and the New York conference generally attracts more than 7000 attendees each year.

At our first session, Beth Morgan teamed with our client Elyse Thibault from Hearst Corporation to share ideas in Big PPC for the In House track. Beth gave some best practices and examples for how to avoid “bidding against yourself” when several divisions within an enterprise need to bid on the same keyword terms. What are two of her top ideas to bring success to the entire enterprise? The first is to centralize - develop great cross-enterprise strategy, communication, and organization to see the big picture and manage the campaign effectively. The second idea is to think BIG. Scope out an
integrated plan right from the beginning of a campaign, and this will enable consistent growth within an enterprise. Elyse from Hearst attested to these ideas by giving some examples of her success working with Red Bricks Media.

At our second session, Sharon Crost presented her search marketing insights to a standing room only audience at the Advanced Advertising track. Sharon’s presentation was focused on getting more ROI from PPC campaigns. She talked about the allure of PPC, and the serious pitfalls to avoid when developing campaigns. She shared six strategies:

1. The Poor Shopper’s Effect:
* Pitfall: Paying too much for what you can get cheaply
* Strategy: Siphon expensive keyword terms to your SEO efforts. This will reduce what you have to pay for terms and increase ROI.

2. The Laryngitis Effect:
* Pitfall: Losing your market share of voice.
* Strategy: Expand your campaign universe further than your competitors

3. The Coin Toss Effect:
* Pitfall: Choosing between “head’ terms and “tail” terms (highest volume terms and lower volume terms)
* Strategy: You don’t have to choose; bid both types strategically.

4. The Rudolph Effect:
* Pitfall: Isolating PPC from the rest of the marketing mix
* Strategy: Integrate PPC to light the way for the other marketing disciplines.

5. The Beginning Golfer’s effect:
* Pitfall: Selecting the wrong performance driver (traffic, revenue, etc.)
* Strategy: Conduct testing to select the right driver

6. The New Love Effect:
* Pitfall: A click doesn’t always last forever
* Strategy: Refresh, renew and revigorate your campaigns.

On the second night of the conference, Red Bricks Media hosted a networking event for New York locals at the trendy Amalia lounge. The event attracted clients, prospects and colleagues who wanted to find out more about Red Bricks Media’s strategies and successes. Overall, it was a great exchange of ideas in a great setting.

Other big buzz at this year’s SES NYC surrounded consolidations of big players in the industry (Google acquiring Double-Click, rumors of Microsoft partnering with Yahoo or Ask), trends in local search, and the continued growth opportunity in both PPC and SEO strategies. If you are interested in more SES, the conference comes to San Jose August 20-23 and will provide continued opportunities for learning and sharing in the exciting world of search!

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by Andy Leinicke, Media Strategist

Last fall, Yahoo released the first version of its new ad serving software called “Panama”. In its literature and website, Yahoo never refers to this new upgraded system by this name, although everyone else does. PPC advertisers have been anticipating this much-rumored about event for some time. Previously, the Yahoo ad server wasn’t quite as flexible as Google’s. It also lacked functionality in terms of the customizable reporting and creative testing that makes Google so easy to optimize.

As of March of this year, Yahoo still hasn’t migrated all of its accounts to Panama. My representative (he has asked to remain anonymous) has informed me that the migration is happening on a case by case basis. If you want to migrate a legacy account to Panama immediately, the best way to do so is to have a Red Bricks Media account manager contact Yahoo. Yahoo manages the process internally.

FEATURES AND BENEFITS
Advertisers can expect a host of new advertising features and benefits in the new system. Campaigns are organized in a hierarchy very close to Google’s. This new paradigm has several advantages. For one, the new interface seems custom built to import campaigns from Google. Also, much like Google, ads and destination URLs (landing pages) can now be tested in a/b splits within a single ad group. Until now, advertisers were forced to wait for test results from Google and then propagate them throughout Yahoo. This method required blind trust that the practices are equally valid in each engine.

Navigating Panama campaigns is now faster and more intuitive than before, and the quick-loading graphs and charts make analysis faster and easier.

Yahoo’s Old Platform:

Yahoo’s New Panama Platform

Panama now allows viewers to quickly assess click, cost, and cost per action (CPA) trends.

QUALITY INDEX:
Unlike the old Yahoo software, the new Panama system uses a quality index to calculate minimum bid requirements for text ads. This index roughly correlates to Google’s Quality Score, which has been occupying Ad Sense uses for nearly a year as they try to makes sense of how if favors or doesn’t favor ads. In an unusual twist, Yahoo beat Google to market with a display feature that lets advertisers know Quality Index on a keyword by keyword basis. Recently, Google followed suit.

There’s a lot more to write about Yahoo Panama’s many features, from Geo-targeting to more discrete budget controls. Suffice it to say, though, that we have great hopes for Yahoo’s new service and look forward to increased performance for our upgraded campaigns.

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by Bain Smith, Lead Copywriter

In this article we will focus on the nature of search engine advertising itself and provide pointers on how to make your ad copy stand out in the ultra-competitive environment of search engine marketing and advertising.

Back in the day when people had something to sell, they traveled door to door with their wares. Their challenge was two-fold. Before they sold anything, they first had to create “the sale before the sale”:selling a prospect on giving them the audience before they could actually sell a prospect anything. The search engine turned this traditional paradigm on its head by eliminating the “sale before the sale”. Search engine users now generate ad content voluntarily based on words they use to search, which should be a boon for business, right?

As a copywriter, the challenge is not creating the opportunity to sell anymore –that’s been done for us – but crafting a winning ad in a prohibitively competitive environment. Where in the past a sale required two sales, now a sale requires that your ad be selected from a list of ads, often selling the exact same product or service.

I have no groundbreaking wisdom to impart on how to write a search engine ad. that resonates with an audience. There are precious few characters of space to employ in a search engine ad and consequently few chances to make your copy “pop”. I will list, however, in no particular order, tips for creating an ad that only a lunatic wouldn’t click.

• Ask yourself, “What am I selling?”
– The railroad industry sold railroads, not the bigger idea of transcontinental transportation. Look at it now.
• Make it readable.
– Don’t cram too much into one ad or you’ll lose the attention
span of your audience.
• Write as if you were speaking to a friend, not a stranger.
– Strangers and prospects are friendly people, too.
• Create a compelling offer.
– If you don’t have a reason to run an offer, make one up.
– A believable reason for a special offer gives it traction and
boosts response.
• Separate your copy into small compartments of information.
– Three facts in one ad are better than one.
• Create a unique message for each of your audience segments.
– Targeted messaging boosts response and customer loyalty.
• The strongest ads tell the truth dramatically.
– If you try to be everything to everybody, you wind up meaning
nothing special to anyone.
• Craft a call to action that’s an easy next step for the
prospect to take.
– If you wrote a good ad, the call to action will click the ad
for them.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment!
– Experiments can create happy accidents, boosting response
rates.

These tips will help you get started down the road to conversion and hopefully illuminate some finer points of writing a good ad for a search engine. There’s no secret to it. It’s like juggling, without the chainsaws. Practice, create tests, learn from your results, and practice some more. Voila!

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