Conference Buddies

Speakers/Panelists:

Scott Brinker, President and CTO, ion interactive
Jonathan Mendez, Founder and CEO, RAMP Digital
James Zolman, CEO, semvironment

Conference Notes/Descriptions:

Going beyond the basic concept of landing page with advanced techniques such as keyword-specific pages, audience segmentation and targeting, dynamically-generated landing pages and more.

API: understand the technology that people are using

All APIs that are available – www.programmableweb.com

Some APIs include:

• Social AMP landing page: Facebook API to pull content to FB; backdoor to social media advertising
• APIs within Ads: serving the landing page to people
  • content in Ad is dynamically updated where the user can complete the transaction within the ad

Build experience to bring revelance to people

• The more control you give people, the better it is
• Providing advanced search can generate persuasive information generated based on the search performed. ie. reviews, maps (give sense of location), helpful / useful information, etc.

Strategy = Bigger Picture

Marriage of Creative + Technology = Success

5 Kinds of Landing Page Capabilities

1) Cycle Speed: Concept to Completion

- No ad hoc landing page creation; Plan & Follow a Process:

1. CMS
2. Design Templates
3. Digital Asset
4. Proof/Approval Workflow
5. Forms (data collection)
6. Parameterized Flash Objects

2) Targeting = Audience Segmentation

1. How segmented
2. How revelant

Coordination Between Pre-Click & Post-Click (Search Marketing Continuity Space)

Testing

1. Test Process:
   • Hypothesis-driven testing
   • Segmentation Testing: testing audiences vs. content
2. Test Experience:
   • 1 pager vs. multiple pager experiences
   • 2 Step landing pages:
     Page 1: User choices to allow further revelance experience on page 2
     Page 2: More revelant information based on user’s choice from page 1

5) Creative

1. “Beauty is a signaling strategy” -Seth Godin
2. Tap visual design talent
3. Play with flash elements
4. Bold testing / out of the box

Additional Tips & Information: www.postclickmarketing.com

Dynamic Landing Pages:

- Works especially well for E-Commerce

1. 2nd Page dynamics based on 1st page simple entry. Multiple page landing page is often better in conversion.
2. Geo-Targeting: IP Address
3. Keyword: dynamic word insertion

Not for Dynamic Landing Pages:

1. Broad Match Technology: too broad which might include negative image
2. Content Network: default keyword is used resulting in generic landing page
3. Semantics: same word but different meaning

Increase Chances for Success:

1. Negative Keywords
   - Tools: Word Tracker, Analytics, Search Engines, Keyword Research Tools
2. Target & Plan: Campaign Structure & Processes
3. Test Small % of Traffic: Day part campaign; use long tail keywords/phrases to lower volume
4. Location: where to place dynamic keywords (H1, H2, etc. tags as well as footer)
5. Copy writing: make it engaging with questions

Multivariate Tools:

• Omniture Testing Targeting
• Google Website Optimizer
• LiveBall

Speakers/Panelists:

Jeremy Crane, Managing Director, Online Media and Search, TNS Compete
Dan Darnell, Director of Marketing, Optimost, Interwoven, Inc
Sandra Niehaus, Vice President User Experience and Creative Director, Closed Loop Marketing

Conference Notes/Description:

Landing pages with multivariate testing tools – tools that let you change various elements of the page dynamically to see which tests better with people.

Stimulus > Exposure > Response

Advertising > Landing Page > Conversion Funnel

Insight + Testing = $

Rules:

1) Dedicated Landing Page
2) Don’t get between your customer: focus on the target destination
3) Optimizing post-click experience
4) Learn from your competitors
5) Every other rule is only true for 5-6 months

Copy:

- Less is More: Remove distractions
- Clear organization of copy
- Clear messaging of offer
- Credibility support (logos)
- Each landing page should have a unique phone number for tracking

Call To Action (CTA):

- Test CTA text, learning what does not work is the goal
- Make text align with expectations to get the offer to the right audience and help people focus on what you want to drive conversions to
- Clear CTA

Overall:

- Pick your battles, focus on what is most important
- Interactions between elements make a difference (test combinations)
- Be careful of raising issues unnecessarily. ie. Privacy Policy for well known brands. In contrast, for less known brands Privacy Policy will help in assurance.

Testing:

- Fine tuning landing pages increases ROI significantly

Step 1: Fix all usability issues on website

Step 2: Getting the offer to the right audience

Step 3: A/B testing is great for clients that are inexperience with testing. Or has a really bad design and needs convincing that a redesign is needed and worth the investment.

Step 4: Multivariate testing for winner of A/B Testing

Investment in Landing Page Design:

- Investing in design skill is worthwhile to achieve the high level of professionalism, harmonized design elements, and good flow of usability experience.

Speakers/Panelists:
Drew Hubbard, Senior Linking Analyst, SEO, The Search Agency
Matt Liu, Product Manager, YouTube, Google Inc.
Jonathan Mendez, Founder and CEO, RAMP Digital
Eric Papczun, Director of Natural Search Optimization, Performics

Conference Notes/Description:

Tips and tactics for doing well with YouTube, the leading online video destination for the web and leading video search engine. YouTube content is widely distributed in search results elsewhere, including those of its owner, Google.

YouTube:

• 2nd largest Search Engine behind Google
• 4th largest web property

Video Ranking:

1. Title
2. Description
   • use complete sentences
   • avoid keyword stuffing (will be penalized)
   • descriptive, accurate & unique
3. Tags
   • avoid keyword stuffing (will be penalized)
4. Community
   • Share & distribute
   • Experiment with annotations, video responses & thumbnails
   • Avoid spamming & rating your own videos
5. Embedding Video
   • distribution = popularity = better

YouTube Insight

• Free Video Analytics Tool for anyone with a YouTube account
  1. Discover: Paid, Organic, etc. traffic
  2. Demographic statistics
  3. Paid Search
• CPC
• Only US & English Only
• Goes to video

Integrated Marketing Campaign with YouTube

• Keyword density within description
• Inbound links
• Ad Bitz video link
• Channel page to include:
  • Optimize channel & profile
  • Include keyword in channel title, tags, description
  • Include the word “Video” within the title
• Subscription
• Distribution: email, embed, embed entire page
• Landing Page for more content
• Deep branding engagement using YouTube

2 Linking Opportunities:

• Under profile picture (deep link)
• Indicate website link (domain only)
• These links are no follow links which will not help SEO but Google does see them

Annotations:

Allow cross-linking within YouTube; these links are clickable. Outside link will not be clickable.

YouTube Title = Meta Title
YouTube Description = Meta Description
YouTube Tags = Meta Keywords

Additional Optimizations:

• Upload captions, annotations, transcripts
• Brand your video with logo watermarks for additional layer of branding
• Annotations can be placed on top of video
• Include Google Map for integration into local search which is 3.3 times more likely to click through
• Include and optimize thumbnails
• Include video sitemaps

What videos can do:

• Promote demand and awareness (ie. BlendTech increase blender sales by 700%)
• Generate traffic through social media: facebook, blogs, media press around video
• Video lifetime is long: months

Jonathan Mendez’s Blog – SEM, Branding in Digital, Social Media Optimization, etc.:

http://www.optimizeandprophesize.com/

TubeMogul:

Distribute video to multiple sites.

Speakers/Panelists:

Mona Elesseily, Director of Marketing Strategy, Page Zero
Matt Van Wagner, President, Find Me Faster

Conference Notes/Description:

The basics of how to purchase ad placement, usually on a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) basis, from major search engines including best practices.

Paid Search Flow Chart:

Campaign -> Ad Group(s) -> Keywords -> Ads -> Landing Pages
Note: Don’t forget the landing page

Ask.com:

Displays own ads as well as fill its extra space with Google Ads resulting in possible double display of your ads.

Additional Features:

• Geographic Targeting
• Time of Day, Day of Week
• Demographic Targeting
  • MSN: Available but when used does not mean the ad is exclusive within the area. Those targeted sites will have the Bid Boost.
  • Google: Available but only within the Content Network.

Use Ad Targeting Preview Tool for testing preview of your ads so to not count as an impression and skew the metrics.

Keyword Tools:

• www.compete.com
• Wordtracker
• www.spyfu.com

Tips for Ad Text:

• Stick to 2 to 3 words keywords
• Use 1 word keyword conservatively
• Test phone numbers on Ads (phone numbers give a sense of authority)
• Include keywords and Call to Actions (CTA)
• Lead generation sites does well for Content Ads
• People do not like acronyms
• Filter clicks by targeting specific audience
• Use appropriate tone

Test:

1. Price
2. Reassurance (official site or 24/7 phone support)
3. Deals (offer ending soon)
   • Free Multivariate Testing Tool: www.adcomparator.com
   • At least 100 clicks for sufficient data

Multivariate Testing:

Buy Cycle:

Different Ad Copy during beginning or end of buy cycle.

Search Marketing Expo – SMX West 2009
February 10-12, 2009
Santa Clara Convention Center
http://www.searcmarketingexpo.com/west/

3 days of search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), paid search advertising (PPC), link building, keyword research, analytics, networking events and much more! 

I highly recommend this event for those wanting to learn more about search marketing or connect with other professionals.   A must see event!