Sesmag chi13

SES Chicago

November 4–7, 2013

SESConference.com

November 2013

Communicate in the Language of the C-Suite Get the Buy-In of Your Executive Team

by Showing How Your Efforts Affect the Big Picture page 1

Five Reasons No One Clicks Through on Your Brand’s Tweets 6 Conduct a Quick PPC Campaign Audit Now 10 Five PPC Holiday Tips for Advertisers 9

staff

about SES

Mike Grehan Group Publishing Director Program Development Head of Events Content Conference Producer

Laura Roth Anna Lee

Operations Senior Event Manager Event Manager Customer Service Manager Customer Service EXECUTIVE

Dan Hoskins Jackie Ortez Charisse Rosales Amanda Targowski

ClickZ & Search Engine Watch special projects editor Copy Editor Asia Desk Editor

Melanie White Caitlin Rossman Adaline Lau

Sales & Marketing Sales Directors

Director, Client Services Marketing Manager Marketing Associate Web Designer Online Operations associate

Elaine Mershon Elaine Romeo Peter Westerholm JoAnn Simonelli Amy Xu Ploy Tangtrakul Rebecca Holz Aleksey Gershin

Magazine Editor Contributors

Dawn Cavalieri McKay Allen Joseph Kerschbaum John Lee Lisa Raehsler Michelle Stinson Ross

Corporate Chief Executive

Tim Weller

Welcome to the Chicago issue of SES Magazine. SES Chicago will consist of four days of unparalleled education in online marketing, including the latest techniques and trends in search, social media, mobile, and email. Daina Middleton, Global CEO at Performics, will deliver the keynote address, describing the new language, methods, philosophies, and tools that marketers need to use in the “Age of Participation.”

This issue features a roster of eminent practitioners who will be speaking at the conference. Michelle Stinson Ross of Majestic SEO, along with Jasmine Sandler of Agenty-cy, will show you how to combat the resistance of your executive leadership and build the case for investing in social. John Lee of Webtrends will be among the panelists in the session on “How to Turn B2B Social into a Lead Gen Machine.” Joseph Kerschbaum of PPC Associates, along with Kayla Kurtz of Hanapin Marketing, will teach you how to create and maintain an ongoing PPC auditing plan.

See page 10 for sample sessions.

To make the most of your time in Chicago, be sure to download the SES Chicago app.

The most up-to-date agenda can also be found on the conference website, SESChicago.com.

And don’t forget these upcoming events: •• SES Singapore, December 2–4, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Singapore (SESSingapore. com) •• SES London, February 10–13, Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre (SESLondon.com) •• SES New York, March 31–April 3, New York Marriott Marquis (SESNew York.com) In addition to the four-day learning environment, there will be many opportunities for informal networking throughout the conference. See you there!

Best regards, Mike Grehan, Chair SES Advisory Board Chair Group Publishing Director, Incisive Media

SES Advisory Board SES: Volume 7, Issue 5 | November 2013 © 2013 Incisive Media plc To subscribe, contribute, or view past issues, visit www.sesconference.com/ses-magazine To advertise, contact sales at sales@sesconference.com or +1 (212) 457-4993.

Comments? Want to unsubscribe? E-mail us at magazine@sesconference.com Incisive Media, U.S. 55 Broad Street, 22nd fl.

New York, NY 10004-2501 tel +1 (646) 736-1888 fax +1 (646) 390-6612

Incisive Media, head office 28-29 Haymarket House London SW1Y 4RX, UK tel +44 (0)20 7316 9609 fax +44 (0)20 7930 2238

Comprised of both industry thought leaders and real-world practitioners, the SES advisory board brings together top players in the field of interactive media and search. The team works to deliver continually cutting-edge search techniques, more integrated and relevant content, and professional development resources to SES attendees.

Mike Grehan, Chair PUBLISHER SES/Search Engine Watch/ ClickZ

Bryan Eisenberg Bestselling Author bryaneisenberg.com

Jon Myers VP, Commercial Director EMEA Marin Software

Matthew Bailey President Site Logic Marketing

Andrew Goodman President Page Zero Media

Lee Odden CEO TopRank Online Marketing

Chris Boggs CMO Internet Marketing Ninjas

Bill Hunt President Back Azimuth Consulting

Giovanni Rodriguez CoFounder and CEO SocialxDesign

Mikel Chertudi Sr. Director, Online & Demand Marketing Adobe

Anne F. Kennedy International Search Strategist Beyond Ink USA

Laura Roth Senior Conference ManageR SES Conference & Expo

Eddie Choi Managing Director Frontiers Digital

Anna Lee Conference Producer SES Conference & Expo

Crispin Sheridan Sr. Director of Search Marketing Strategy SAP

contents

Follow SES at twitter.com/SESConf

cover Story

1

Communicate in the Language of the C-Suite Get the Buy-In of Your Executive Team by Showing How Your Efforts Affect the Big Picture Conference Information

2 10

Sponsors & Exhibitors

Columns

5

Call Tracking Isn’t Enough Anymore Marketers Need a Deeper Level of Data from Call Analytics

6

Five Reasons No One Clicks Through on Your Brand’s Tweets The Problem Isn’t Your Content—It’s You

8

Conduct a Quick PPC Campaign Audit Now Capture Opportunities, Save Money, and Foster Creativity Through a Standardized Audit Process

9

Five PPC Holiday Tips for Advertisers Last-Minute Tweaks to Generate Fourth-Quarter 2013 Sales

SAMPLE SESSIONS at SES Chicago

November 2013

Cover art via Shutterstock

Communicate in the Language of the C-Suite Get the Buy-In of Your Executive Team by Showing How Your Efforts Affect the Big Picture

by Michelle Stinson Ross

O

ver the last several months, there has been a constant buzz of frustration in conversations across conference lunch tables. Digital marketers are frustrated by a perceived lack of communication with executive-level decision makers.

The C-suite often wants to see some kind of indication of ROI before it puts additional resources into our activities. However, to provide any real data on ROI, we need to launch and test. When we try to get into the granular metrics that matter to us, we are often met with confusion because executives aren’t as familiar with the inner workings of social marketing as we are.

The issue doesn’t involve education as much as it does basic communication.

Although executives and marketers use a lot of the same terminology, we use it in very different ways. We marketers also have a very intimate, ground-level perspective on our activities, while our CEOs maintain an overview of the entire business environment.

The sooner we learn how to articulate how digital marketing—specifically, social media marketing—fits into the big picture,

the sooner we will get the executive-level buy-in we need.

The sooner we learn how to articulate how digital marketing— specifically, social media marketing—fits into the big picture, the sooner we will get the executivelevel buy-in we need.

First, we need to put aside the concrete numbers of our day-to-day activities. CEOs, CMOs, and CFOs are accustomed to making decisions based on reasonable assumptions.

All they need to hear from us are the percentages of change we can accomplish in overall market share, customer retention, and customer service costs. When they ask us for ROI, they want to know how our efforts affect the big picture.

The next time you get a meeting with your company’s decision makers, shift your perspective from detailed metrics that determine what you post and when, to how you’ve

Don’t miss this session at SES Chicago:

Social Media and the C-Suite: Building a Compelling Business Case See page 11.

moved the needle for the entire marketplace.

If your efforts to date have created a positive trend of X%, then it would be reasonable to assume that you could increase that to Y% with an increase of Z resources.

The challenge isn’t so much that the C-suite needs a better understanding of how social media marketing works, although it will eventually want that education. It is that we need to show how what we do affects the company’s impact on the marketplace. When we articulate that, we will be communicating in the language of the C-suite.

Michelle Stinson Ross is director of social marketing at Digital Always Media. She cohosts #SocialChat, a Twitter-based live chat dealing with social media marketing.

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sponsors & exhibitors SES Chicago | November 4–7, 2013 PLATINUM SPONSOR Marin Software Booth 205 & Track Sponsor www.marinsoftware.com Marin Software provides the world’s leading online advertising management platform for advertisers and agencies to manage their paid search, social media, display advertising, and mobile campaigns. Marin Software’s platform is designed to meet the workflow, reporting, and optimization needs of advertisers and agencies, helping them to save time and improve financial performance.

Free Download for ClickZ’s Facebook Casebook. Sponsored by Marin Software.

Sponsors & Exhibitors Algebrize Booth 100 www.algebraixdata.com Algebrize is the first commercial application to automate the implementation of Schema.org markup. Algebrize enables digital agencies to provide ecommerce clients with a cross-platform solution to dynamically apply and manage Schema.org markup, which is now the foundation for best SEO practices. By applying Schema. org markup, websites connect to the Knowledge Graph and individual products are positioned for greater visibility in search results, including rich snippets and inclusion in the image carousel. This increased visibility leads to higher click rates, improved conversion rates, and increased sales. Algebrize is a product of Algebraix Data, the semantic web company.

Bing Sponsored Session www.advertise.bingads.microsoft.com Search advertising with Bing helps you efficiently reach your next best customer—within your budget and with the support you need to get started and optimized, and measure your results.

Brafton, Inc. Booth 106 www.brafton.com Brafton is a news and content marketing agency. Full-time, inhouse content writers and graphic designers create exclusive content targeting clients’ unique audiences, keywords, and business goals. Account managers provide consultancy on SEO-friendly content marketing strategies to engage social audiences, drive relevant website traffic, and optimize for conversions. Custom analytics reporting ensures the most effective strategies for maximum results. Brafton serves clients throughout North America from offices in Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco.

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ClickZ Booth 102 www.clickz.com ClickZ is the largest resource of interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference in the world, online or off-. From search to social, technology to trends, our coverage is expert, exclusive, and in-depth.

Our mission: to help interactive marketers do their jobs better.

The seasoned ClickZ News team serves up smart, original reporting and analysis on the interactive marketing industry and the companies that make it tick. Experts from the trenches provide commentary, opinion, advice, and thought leadership from the leading practitioners in interactive marketing. The ClickZ Stats section is an award-winning source for interactive and Internet research. Facts, figures, research, and data on every facet of the online industry, domestic and worldwide.

ClickZ also offers: •• ClickZ Job Board: ClickZ Jobs helps connect job seekers with new employment opportunities and provide employers access to our large audience of interactive marketing professionals.

•• ClickZ Academy: ClickZ Academy has been created to help online marketers develop their skills. From e-learning and webinars, to onsite or in-house training, we offer a format to suit your preferred learning style.

eZdia Booth 110 www.eZdia.com eZdia delivers high-quality, scalable content solutions to the world’s most successful companies. Our technology and services help these organizations drive sales, reduce costs, increase quality, and accelerate ROI. eZdia has proven success delivering tens of thousands of written content blocks per month to Fortune 500 Companies. eZdia’s Content Creation Platform (CCP) drives traffic and sales for ecommerce leaders while providing content development savings of 30-50% and a measurable increase in quality and customer engagement.

Our mission is to make the web more readable, engaging, and enjoyable by connecting companies with the world’s most motivated writers. If we can also create one million jobs by 2020, then consider us satisfied. eZdia provides agencies with the ability to scale their clients’ content initiatives without adding workforce or unnecessary costs or burdening existing infrastructure. With eZdia’s CCP platform, agencies can now manage a greater number of clients and deliver SEO/content expertise to verticals that were previously unattainable. In record time.

product & service guide Advertising Networks Bing............................................Sponsor Google Shopping...................Sponsor 7Search.com............................Sponsor Advertising, Display ClickZ..................................................102 7Search.com............................Sponsor Affiliate & PerformanceBased Marketing Solutions TN Private Label............................ 312 Content & News Feed Providers Brafton...............................................106 eZdia Inc............................................ 110 Content Management Brafton...............................................106 eZdia Inc............................................ 110

Interactive Marketing Agencies 352....................................................... 101 Interactive Marketing Associations & Publications SEW.....................................................102 Lead Generation ClickZ..................................................102 Search Laboratory........................201 Link Building MajesticSEO....................................310 Page One Power............................. 211 SubmitEdge......................................104 Marketing Optimization Solutions Algebrize............................................100 ClickZ..................................................102 Marin Software..............................205 Moz.............................................Sponsor

Google Sponsored Session www.google.com Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users.

Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit www. google.com.

Majestic SEO Booth 310 www.majesticseo.com Majestic SEO provides competitor backlinks intelligence to SEO specialists. Majestic SEO is the planet’s most comprehensive backlinks information provider and offers a number of tools to access to this valuable resource. Most recently, Majestic launched Site Explorer— offering more data than anyone else by a considerable margin.

Majestic enables registered users to test its services free of charge by generating reports for site users’ control. Registration is free, and highly competitive subscription plans start at low prices, with a one-month minimum commitment. Subscribers have a range of tools to enable link analysis of competing domains to be performed. For Enterprise users, Majestic offers an API service for internal use that enables developers to integrate the data into new or existing suites of reports and applications.

Link data includes 3 trillion links on the web by: •• Anchor text •• Link strength

Booth #s on right.

Page One Power............................. 211 SEW.....................................................102 352....................................................... 101 Organic Search Marketing Algebrize............................................100 eZdia Inc............................................ 110 Moz.............................................Sponsor Page One Power............................. 211 Pay-Per-Click Networks & Management Services Bing............................................Sponsor 7Search.com............................Sponsor Private Label Solutions TN Private Label............................ 312 Search Engines, General Bing............................................Sponsor Google Shopping...................Sponsor

Search Engines, Specialized MajesticSEO....................................310 Search Marketing Agencies Search Laboratory........................201 SubmitEdge......................................104 352....................................................... 101 Search Marketing Software Algebrize............................................100 Marin Software..............................205 Video SEO & Video Content Brafton...............................................106 SubmitEdge......................................104 Website Search & Technologies MajesticSEO....................................310 SEW.....................................................102

•• Crawl date •• Country source •• IP number •• Follow/frame/redirect and other flags Stop by their stand to request a demo and trial.

Moz Lanyard Sponsor moz.com Moz provides analytics software to track all of a website’s inbound marketing efforts on one platform—with beautiful data visualizations, insights into competitors’ data, and actionable recommendations to improve each effort’s performance. Dedicated to helping people do better marketing, Moz creates easy-to-use tools, tutorials, and educational resources for learning inbound marketing—and fosters the web’s most vibrant online marketing community. With offices in Seattle, WA, and Portland, OR, Moz supports over 20,000 customers and 300,000 community members worldwide.

Page One Power Booth 211 www.pageonepower.com Page One Power is a Boise SEO firm headed by two brothers, Jon and Zach Ball. Page One Power focuses on customized, white-hat link building strategies. We work with a limited number of highly motivated clients who are focused on getting top search engine rankings.

P1P specializes in custom link building. We create a unique strategy for each of our clients, because every website is different. We analyze a niche, your leading competitors, and industry experts to formulate a customized solution for your particular link building needs. We value communication, transparency, and results.

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sponsors & exhibitors SES Chicago | November 4–7, 2013 Our professional writers and researchers are creative, highlymotivated individuals who take pride in their work and care deeply about your brand. They spend all day creating high-quality, sustainable links.

We’re the link builders you’ve been looking for.

“We’re a small firm. We don’t have departments and account managers so our clients work directly with the leadership of the company. Because of this our clients love working with us. Of course we get results too.”—Jon Ball, Page One Power Free Webinar: Jonathan Ball from Page One Power presents “Link Building 101.” View on demand.

Search Engine Watch Booth 102 searchenginewatch.com Search Engine Watch provides tips and information about searching the web, analysis of the search engine industry, and help to site owners trying to improve their ability to be found in search engines.

Search Laboratory Limited Booth 201 www.searchlaboratory.com

7Search.com Track Sponsor www.7search.com 7Search has been a premiere pay-per-click search network for over a decade, distinguishing itself for driving quality traffic, affordably. It is known for excellent customer service—advertisers can call, email, or instant message an actual person who is an expert in training and assisting advertisers to optimize their campaigns. This team is dedicated to ensuring that each and every advertiser achieves the best return on investment they possibly can. Take advantage of 7Search’s network to drive traffic your way.

SubmitEdge Booth 104 www.submitedge.com SubmitEdge specializes in fulfilling all your Internet marketing needs. We believe in continuous improvement in all our operations,

4 SES • November 2013 {Chicago}

and focus on building and maintaining sound relations with each of our customers. Over 30,000 customers worldwide have benefited from our services since 2006. From social media and search engine optimization to video creation, all our services are available in competitive packages to meet the diverse needs of our customers.

352 Inc. Booth 101 www.352media.com 352, formerly 352 Media Group, is a digital agency creating websites, software, and marketing campaigns for startups, mid-sized business, and prominent brands like Microsoft and Wells Fargo.

Specializing in business strategy, UX design, agile web development, and integrated digital marketing, 352 partners with great clients to build smart solutions that drive results. 352 has offices in Atlanta, Tampa, and Gainesville, FL. For more information, visit www.352media.com, or follow us on Twitter @352inc.

TN Private Label Booth 312 tnprivatelabel.com The TicketNetwork® Private Label Program provides our partners with a private white-label ticket website, as well as access to the world’s largest ticket exchange, which displays more than $2 billion in inventory, including tickets to over 80,000 sports, concerts, theater, and Las Vegas events.

We handle all of the customer service, order fulfillment, and credit card processing. You focus on what you do best—Internet marketing!

Unlike other affiliate programs, TicketNetwork® puts you in the driver’s seat. You set your own retail mark-up of the secondary tickets broadcast on your website. Basically, you control your own commission! And with ticket orders averaging at more than $300, you will quickly earn a lot of revenue. With us, you: •• Make more money by connecting to our online exchange.

•• Control your commission.

•• Sit back and collect your earnings—weekly!

AnALYTICS

focus

Call Tracking Isn’t Enough Anymore Marketers Need a Deeper Level of Data from Call Analytics

by McKay Allen

C

all tracking has been around for about 15 years. It tells marketers which ads, campaigns, and keywords generate calls and which don’t.

Agencies, SMBs, and enterprise-level companies use it to improve their ROI and obtain valuable insight into their marketing data.

Call tracking is good, but it provides only surface data about campaigns, almost no data about leads, and absolutely no data about conversions. And now it gathers much less data than it used to. Google announced earlier this fall that they are no longer providing organic keyword data: We added SSL encryption for our signedin search users in 2011, as well as searches from the Chrome omnibox earlier this year. We’re now working to bring this extra protection to more users who are not signed in.

Translation: no more organic keyword data.

This is a gut punch for call-tracking providers, many of whom have built their value proposition around marrying keywords to callers. Articles in Search Engine Journal and Blog.LogMyCalls.com have even heralded the end of keyword call tracking.

Long story short: call tracking provides very superficial marketing analytics.

The Need for Deeper Call Analytics Calls are more important than ever: •• Over $68 billion were spent on advertising in 2012 to generate phone

calls, and that number will be higher in 2013 (source: BIA/Kelsey).

•• New research from Google reveals that a stunning 70% of local mobile searchers make a phone call immediately after their search.

•• It takes four web leads to produce the revenue generated from one phone call (sources: BIA/Kelsey and

performance, competitor mentions, commitment to buy, purchase language, compliments, complaints, agent empathy, agitation level, and even missed opportunities.

Again, it gathers all this data based on the words and phrases that are actually spoken on the call. This is the deep data that call tracking hasn’t been able to provide. For the first time, a tool is analyzing those 420 bil-

LogMyCalls). Read that again, slowly.

lion words said on business phone calls.

For example, if Conversation Analytics hears the phrases “confirmation number” and “credit card number” within 20 words of each other, we can state with an extreme level of confidence that a transaction took place on the call. If Conversation Analytics hears the phrase “call back tomorrow,” it will know that follow-up action is needed.

Calls are critically important; surface call data is no longer acceptable.

More than 420 billion words are spoken each day on business phone calls.

A lot of really important things happen after the phone rings. Call tracking misses all of that data.

Call tracking stops after the phone rings.

But guess what doesn’t stop? The conversation, the transaction—all the things that really matter.

Deeper Call Data: Conversation Analytics Gartner says that more than 420 billion words are spoken each day on business phone calls. A lot of really important things happen after the phone rings. Call tracking misses all of that data.

A new tool called Conversation Analytics analyzes those words and extracts useful data. Think of it this way: call tracking analyzes what happens before the call; Conversation Analytics analyzes what happens on the call.

Conversation Analytics mines every call using sophisticated speech recognition technology and thousands of simultaneously operating algorithms. These algorithms rip the call apart and look for useful indications about what took place. It then spits out dozens of metrics. It can track lead quality, sales readiness, customer sentiment, sales

Web Analytics versus Call Analytics Marketers demand a lot from web analytics.

They wouldn’t buy a web analytics tool that only gave them referring source data about a visitor. They demand data like time on site, on-page behavior, page flow, demographic data about the visitor, conversions, funnels, and goals. Any web analytics tool that didn’t provide this level of data would be judged, immediately and rightly, as sub par.

Yet that’s what call tracking does: it only provides surface-level data. Why are marketers okay with this? Why don’t marketers demand a deeper level of data from call analytics?

The writing is on the wall. Calls are becoming more important, more frequent, and more useful. That’s why basic call tracking isn’t enough anymore.

McKay Allen is marketing content manager at LogMyCalls, the next generation of intelligent call tracking and marketing automation. He is a sought-after speaker and writer.

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Social media

Five Reasons No One Clicks Through on Your Brand’s Tweets The Problem Isn’t Your Content—It’s You

by John Lee

I

t’s one of the most maddening conundrums of social marketing: “I have great content. I’m promoting it. But no one clicks through to actually see it.”

The problem isn’t your brand’s content.

It’s you.

As soon as you start thinking that your content is great, you get lazy. You begin operating with the assumption that merely tweeting a link to your amazing article/infographic/video will drive a deluge of clicks and retweets. Social just doesn’t work that way. It’s not about what you post. It’s how you post it.

Read on for five reasons why no one’s clicking on your tweets.

1. Your Process Most brands treat the social promotion of an asset as an add-on or one-off. In other words, they create content in a silo, then deliver it to the social team with a request to “tweet it out.” This is a setup to fail.

Individual tweets can’t be treated as if they exist in a vacuum. It’s crucial that they fit seamlessly into a larger stream of outbound social content. Your tweet about an upcoming webinar, for example, doesn’t succeed or fail based on 140 characters. In actuality, it lives and dies based on how well you’ve accounted for larger, real-time nuances: what you’ve posted in the last day/week, your balance of in-house versus industry content, and daily patterns in user response and sentiment, just to name a few.

That means you need to do two things: •• Include your social team in content development. The earlier, the better.

Being able to account for the nuances mentioned above—and subsequently determine the right messaging and targeting—requires that the social team fully understand the value (to the user) and purpose (for the brand) of each asset. This happens best in planning and goal-setting meetings, not in a postproduction brief.

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•• Plan ahead. This one’s on the social manager. As soon as you’re brought in, start thinking of when and how you’ll incorporate a specific piece of content into your overall social mix. I’m talking days and weeks in advance, not minutes.

Remember, social is a nurture channel, not an execution mechanism. If you want your promotions to succeed, you need to proactively find a place for them, not just reactively publish something because someone told you to.

As soon as you start thinking that your content is great, you get lazy. You begin operating with the assumption that merely tweeting a link to your amazing article/ infographic/video will drive a deluge of clicks and retweets. Social just doesn’t work that way.

It’s not about what you post. It’s how you post it.

2. Your Tone Let’s be real: Social is overrun with brands running their mouths with marketing nonsense like forced calls to action, empty claims of being “innovative,” “new,” or “the leader,” and transparent bait-and-switches.

Guess what? Users can see right through that and tune out, so get over yourself. Specifically, tone down the branding in your tweets. Focus instead on the value your users get when they click through.

Most importantly, make the tweet itself a useful piece of content, not a headline. Are you sharing a report or article? Lead with your biggest stat. Are you hosting an event or webinar?

Highlight a top tip. Are you debuting a new product? Don’t talk about the tech; talk about why it’ll make your user’s life better.

3. Your Presentation Five hundred million tweets are sent every single day. That’s nearly 5,800 tweets every second. That means your amazing content isn’t just getting pushed down in a user’s feed; it’s getting absolutely buried.

So how are you supposed to grab the user’s attention? The key lies in social-visual content: photos and videos.

The numbers back this up. Tweets with images or videos are three to four times more likely to be clicked on. But it’s also vital to understand why social-visual content drives so much more interaction, and that really all comes down to user psychology.

Social-visual content accounts for two factors critical to engagement: clarity and convenience.

Consider a typical marketing tweet: some text, a call to action, and a link to a landing page where users either have to sift through a large amount of copy or have to fill out a form to actually get a desired piece of content. It’s not necessarily an unexpected—or even ineffective—user experience, but in the speed- and brevity-driven world of social, it’s quite a commitment.

Photos and videos, on the other hand, take the guesswork out of a tweet. Rather than having to click through to an unknown landing page, social-visual content delivers the core information directly in a user’s feed.

The end result is a clear message that saves users time and effort.

4. Your Perspective Social thrives most as a touchpoint, not an endpoint.

The problem is that most brands treat social content solely as an endpoint. Rather than thinking about how to build a lasting relationship with a user, we look for immediate conversion via a download, video view, or click-through. We get so blinded trying to drive an action on the spot that we make the most critical mistake of all: thinking that we, the marketer, are the most important person in the social relationship.

Social media

The truth is that no brand, no matter how awesome, is that interesting all the time. The more we focus on ourselves, the more we alienate our users.

A touchpoint system, however, frees us from the need to drive conversion with every tweet. Instead, the emphasis is on providing a positive brand experience with each social interaction so that users slowly (but consistently) move forward in their customer journey. The goal is long-term acquisition, conversion, and retention, not a single click or download.

The end result is a bit of a paradox: by focusing less on coercing action, we often get more engagement than we would’ve had otherwise.

created, but if the last five pieces you promoted weren’t that great, chances are people aren’t coming back for the sixth.

Again, this is why tweets can’t be treated as if they exist in a vacuum. Meaningful interaction and repeat engagement rest on your credibility as a trusted resource. That reputation comes from the entirety of your social presence—the other tweets in your

get big-time social traction, resist the urge to be your own hype person. Instead, stay humble— it’ll keep you hungry. Your content just may be legitimately great, but that’s not what drives engagement.

The value, experience, and relationships you deliver over the long term are what makes sustainable social success a reality.

It’s what will make users come chasing after

feed, past content you’ve shared, your overall promotional mix—not just a single tweet.

Focus on building a track record of delivering useful content. Long-term social success is based on nurtured relationships, and that means you need to provide users a reason to keep coming back.

you the next time you’ve got something to share.

The Takeaway 5. Your Reputation This one’s pretty simple. Your latest asset might be the greatest thing you’ve ever

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John Lee is manager of brand and social marketing at Web­ trends. In 2012, he was recognized by PR Daily for creating the “Best Branding Campaign” and “Event of the Year.”

Just because you tweet something doesn’t mean anyone will care. That might be a shot to your ego, but if you really want to

Don’t miss this session at SES Chicago:

How to Turn B2B Social into a Lead Gen Machine Wednesday, November 6, 2:00–3:00pm Only 15% of CMOs say that they can quantify social ROI. That’s even with 90% of brands saying that they measure social engagement. But B2B social isn’t a mystery, and new metrics/tactics show why. Attend this session to discover: •• How IBM had integrated and applied Smarter Marketing best practices into the design of the Rethink Business Campaign, and how IBM Digital Analytics and Digital Data Exchange (DDX) are architected into the lead flow strategy.

•• How social media is integral to the campaign—woven into every customer touchpoint.

•• Specific lead gen best practices for Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, and SlideShare, and how and when to use each one.

•• How and when to use paid versus organic social tactics. B2B social lead gen requires a delicate balance of performance and organic marketing.

•• How to integrate with the B2B marketing machine. Social lead gen requires tight integration with marketing automation, analytics, and email marketing.

Speakers: •• Michelle Killibrew, Program Director, Strategy & Solutions, Social Business, IBM •• John Lee, Manager, Brand & Social Marketing, Webtrends

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PAID SEARCH

Conduct a Quick PPC Campaign Audit Now Capture Opportunities, Save Money, and Foster Creativity Through a Standardized Audit Process

by Joseph Kerschbaum

E

ven if your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign is performing well, it can be improved. If it isn’t generating the results you need, a few changes can send it in the right direction. That is one of the great things about PPC campaigns: the endless opportunity for optimization.

Regardless of your campaign’s results, you should implement a regular account audit strategy. A standardized audit process will allow you to: •• C apture new opportunities. Find areas of expansion during an audit—for example, implement new keywords, target new devices or channels, or launch new ad or landing page tests.

•• S top wasted ad spend. Locate elements of your campaign that are generating cost with few sales, no sales, or a poor overall ROI. •• Maintain creativity and innovation. Make sure that your campaign is using the latest tactics. The campaigns you built a year ago might not be optimal now, as the PPC landscape changes quickly.

The following list of considerations for your regular audits concentrates on locating wasted ad spend. After auditing numerous PPC campaigns, I have found that these areas have the highest risk of errors and budget bleeding.

Bogus Campaign Settings Campaign settings can be the silent killer of a campaign. These settings are incredibly important since they affect every element of your campaign, but they are often overlooked when accounts are reviewed. Some of the settings may seem basic, but you would be surprised how often I find simple errors that cost advertisers huge amounts of money.

•• Geo-targeting. Make sure that each campaign is targeting the right geographic location.

8 SES • November 2013 {Chicago}

•• Languages. Most US-based campaigns target only English, but you need to make sure that the language is appropriate for each campaign.

•• Delivery method. There are two options: standard and accelerated. I prefer accelerated delivery because I (not Google) maintain control over when my ad displays. However, with accelerated your ad spend will go much faster. Try accelerated delivery, and control your budget with scheduling.

•• Ad scheduling. Ads can be scheduled hourly and daily. Make sure that ads are running only at the times that are appropriate for your business.

•• A d rotation. Options here include optimizing for clicks, optimizing for conversions, rotating evenly, and rotating indefinitely. I prefer the option to rotate indefinitely, which allows you to maintain control of your ad testing.

The first rule of Search Network, Search Partners Network, and Google Display Network is that the search and display networks should be segmented into separate campaigns.

If these networks are running in the same campaign, stop reading now and fix your campaigns.

Rogue Distribution Networks There are three core distribution networks within AdWords: Search Network, Search Partners Network, and Google Display Network. The first rule of these networks is that the search and display networks should be segmented into separate campaigns. If these

Don’t miss this session at SES Chicago:

PPC Campaign Management: Creating and Sustaining an Auditing Framework See page 11.

networks are running in the same campaign, stop reading now and fix your campaigns.

The Search Partner Network can’t be segmented into an individual campaign, but you can opt out. You need to see whether this network is active in your campaign and run an analysis to determine if it is performing to the established KPIs. There is limited optimization for the Search Partner Network right now, so if the ROI looks poor, you may just have to turn it off for now.

Mobile Devices Often when I conduct an audit, I find that advertisers are running on smart phones without having a strategic plan for these devices. If your campaigns are targeted to mobile devices, make a purposeful decision that includes a path to success. During your audit, you should first establish whether mobile devices are a good fit for your current campaign activities.

This year Google introduced Enhanced Campaigns, which allow advertisers to use bid modifiers for mobile devices. Your audit should establish whether mobile bid modifiers are set properly. Bid modifiers can range from -100% (opting out of mobile) up to +900%.

Slow, Silent Killer Keywords Your PPC account manager should run regular keyword analyses, looking for areas of expansion and improvement. During your audit you should carry out some long-view keyword reports that include three to six months’ worth of data. You may find that certain keywords don’t spend much on a daily or weekly basis, but low-volume keywords with no sales over a few months can slowly bleed your account.

PAID SEARCH

focus

Five PPC Holiday Tips for Advertisers Last-Minute Tweaks to Generate Fourth-Quarter 2013 Sales

by Lisa Raehsler Misplaced Placements on the GDN You should complete a similar report for your Google Display Network campaigns.

Some placements (websites) may not spend much daily or weekly, but over a longer period of time you’ll probably find placements that have spent quite a bit of money with little return.

Tests That Need to Be Retired Ad testing is often overlooked, but it is one of the most important areas of PPC campaign management. All too often I find ad groups that are running only one ad and not testing, and groups that have been split testing the same ads for much too long.

Sometimes account managers will launch a test and then never check back on the results.

I’ve also found ad groups with way too much testing going on. Once I found an ad group with over 25 active ads. The advertiser didn’t even remember what they were testing, what the control variation was, and what they hoped to learn.

Conclusion These are just a few elements of a good account audit, but they are enough to get you started. If you run PPC campaigns on a day-to-day basis, use this list to review your accounts for a quick sanity check. If you don’t run the account daily, this list will serve as a jumping off point to make sure that everything is set up properly. I’ll bet that if you go into your PPC account right now, one of these elements will not be exactly right. Go—do it now!

Joseph Kerschbaum is Midwest account director for 3Q Digital.

He is a regular speaker at search and advertising conferences and co-author of PayPer-Click SEM: One Hour a Day.

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early half of consumers say that they plan to buy holiday gifts online this year, according to a Google consumer survey. In fact, last year’s in-store sales on Black Friday actually declined by 2 percent!

Whether you’re a traditional retailer or not, there are several elements of your PPC campaigns that can be tweaked and optimized to take advantage of the fourth quarter 2013 sales opportunity.

1. Keywords for Gift Giving If your product or service is traditionally thought of as a gift, be sure to use keywords that demonstrate searcher intent for gift giving.

For example, “women’s gift ideas,” “gifts for dads,” and “spa gifts” show gifting intent.

In addition to shopping terms, take a closer look at product pages. Since people will be using their mobile devices to comparison shop, ensure product pages contain product names; generic product name; “review,” “sale,” or “gift” keywords; and model/SKU numbers.

Not only will this benefit PPC and user experience, but also it may boost SEO efforts.

2. Mobile Device Targeting Are your AdWords Enhanced campaigns less than enhanced? One of the major changes in AdWords has been the combination of mobile devices with desktop and the inability to opt out. This especially hurts with some campaigns on tablets that yield higher CPCs and lower conversion rates.

One solution for this is to designate a mobile preferred ad and to check landing pages used for tablets. On the landing page, include what actions you want the searcher to take next with a strong call to action.

Design this experience as if it’s very different from a desktop. Special attention in this area can help with mobile performance.

On Bing Ads, advertisers have complete control over targeting devices. You can not only select smartphones and/or tablets, but also choose none of the above. Consider if

these should be combined or separated from desktop depending on your objectives and business.

Likewise, if you are unprepared or providing a negative user experience via mobile, opt out, then relaunch mobile when you’re ready.

3. Mobile Campaigns with PLAs People are using their mobile devices as shopping assistants. Recently, Google updated the look of the mobile PLA unit for searches on Google.com. Searchers can now swipe to see more products in this ad unit.

This could be significant, because there is very limited space to show many results at all. Google says that early testing has been positive and proves to drive more traffic to retailers.

4. Everyone Loves to Save with Coupons According to eMarketer, ten times as many coupons are redeemed through mobile as through traditional channels.

Can you adapt current promotional campaigns with coupons, discounts, rebates, or loyalty points on mobile? Since consumers are actually comparison shopping on mobile while in the store, this can make a difference in product selection or overall average sale.

5. Ad Copy Makeover Make your ads more relevant by including copy that speaks to your audience and acknowledges the holidays—e.g., “buy men’s gifts” or “ready to ship by holiday.” Even if your product or service is not traditionally a gift item, think of convenience or support for the holidays. For example, promote a cleaning service for the holidays as “the gift you give yourself.”

Lisa Raehsler is founder and principal strategist at Big Click Co., an online advertising company and Google AdWords Certified Partner.

sesconference.com • SES 9

sessions SES Chicago | November 4–7, 2013 | hosted by Sample Sessions

Download the app or visit www.SESChicago.com for complete agenda and session descriptions.

Day 1—Tuesday, November 5 10:30–11:30am

Business Intelligence I Spy: How to Outwit Your Competitors—SEM Analysis How do you optimize your messaging and differentiate yourself in a highly competitive space? There are many PPC, SEO, and socialmedia competitive-analysis tools that can help you. Learn about the most popular features of both free and premium tools, and discover how to use the data gathered to outperform your competition.

This session will examine: •• How to scale competitive research for content marketing.

•• How to save hours by creating efficient and automated systems in Excel.

•• New and hyper-efficient ways to pull data.

•• Which tools will help you analyze PPC versus SEO competitors.

•• How to identify competitors’ budgets, keywords, ads, and topperforming landing pages.

•• How to set up alerts to be notified when new advertisers enter your market or your competitors change their creative.

•• Tips to hide from your competitors and keep your ads private.

Moderator: •• Matt Van Wagner, President, Find Me Faster Speakers: •• John-Henry Scherck, Content Marketing Manager, SEO Gadget US •• Jamie Smith, Founder, Engine Ready 3:30–4:30pm

Earned Driving Business Value with a Social and Content Master Plan Discover best practices for content creation, management, and measurement, and learn: •• What guidelines to include in your social and content master plan.

•• How to integrate your social plan with SEO. •• How to ensure that you are speaking the right language in the right communities.

•• How to track the thousands of social conversations sparked by your content.

•• How to measure the bottom-line business value of social content.

Moderator: •• Erin Everhart, Director of Digital Marketing, 352 Speakers: •• Chris Boggs, SES Advisory Board; COO/CMO, Internet Marketing Ninjas •• Jordan Viator Slabaugh, Director of Social Media, Spredfast

10 SES • November 2013 {Chicago}

3:30–4:30pm

Owned Unlocking the Secrets of Mobile Video: YouTube, Instagram, and Vine Discover the opportunities and advantages that social video provides, and the best video practices for getting targeted traffic and stakeholder engagement towards measurable conversions. Attend this session to learn: •• How to create mobile videos for YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

•• When to start building a cohesive mobile-video strategy and viewing experience.

•• The social-to-SEO advantage with video.

•• The myths and facts about video SEO and “engagement.”

•• How to build your social-video playbook with strategies and tactics tailored to your business goals.

Moderator: •• Danny Goodwin, Associate Editor, Search Engine Watch Speakers: •• Grant Crowell, YouTube Custodian & Videologist, GrantCrowell.com •• Greg Jarboe, President & Co-founder, SEO-PR

Day 2—Wednesday, November 6 10:45–11:45am

Owned Badass Blogging: Best Practices to Enhance Your Customer Reach Learn the secrets of the blogging pros. Get a behind-the-scenes look at some top blogs and learn how to transform your stale corporate blog into a content powerhouse. This session will examine: •• Best practices—including excerpts from exclusive interviews with bloggers such as Business2Community, Mark Schaefer, and Chris Voss.

•• Proprietary research—analysis of tens of thousands of blogs that reveals why some perform better than others.

•• Tools—the platforms and plugins.

•• Targeting—how to research keywords for the right new customers.

•• Curation—how to supercharge your productivity by generating fresh, relevant content.

Moderator: •• Anna Lee, Conference Producer, SES Conference & Expo Speakers: •• Dan Cristo, Director of SEO Innovation, Catalyst Online •• Virginia Nussey, Content and Media Manager, Bruce Clay, Inc.

Download the app or visit SESChicago.com.

3:15–4:15pm

Earned Getting the Link Love: Link Building That Drives Relevant Traffic to Your Site Some think that link building done “the right way” is code for link building that doesn’t work, but there are more opportunities within your grasp than you may realize. Link building may not be sexy, but it is still a very big driver of rankings.

Learn how to build links the right way in order to drive traffic and stand up to Google’s scrutiny. This session will cover: •• Examples in which links with no domain authority work, links with little relevancy work, and very few links work; case studies ranging from local businesses to tech startups.

•• Why most link building campaigns are a waste of time.

•• A new take on link value factors.

•• The knowledge graph—why relevance is more important than ever.

•• What should be used in lieu of EMAT (exact match anchor text) co-citation.

Moderator: •• Danny Goodwin, Associate Editor, Search Engine Watch Speakers: •• Nate Dame, CEO, SEOperks •• Chuck Price, President & CEO, Measurable SEO 3:15–4:15pm

Business Intelligence Social Media and the C-Suite: Building a Compelling Business Case These days, decision makers are either doing their own due diligence—looking up your business for reviews and case studies—or having their assistants do it. In fact, 60% of all corporate buying decisions are influenced by what is said online about the executives of the selling organization.

You know that you need to be present and leading positive, insightful conversations in social. Learn to combat the fear and resistance of your executive leadership. In this session, you will discover: •• How social connections drive purchasing decisions.

•• How audience segmentation aids market research.

•• How to measure customer service savings and sales growth.

•• How to build the case for investment in both talent and budget.

•• How to deliver compelling case studies of competitors’ success in social.

•• A case study of a client who won in social engagement.

Moderator: •• Melanie White, Special Projects Editor, ClickZ Speakers: •• Michelle Stinson Ross, Director of Social Marketing, Digital Always Media •• Jasmine Sandler, CEO, Agent-cy

sessions

Day 3—Thursday, November 7 12:00–1:00pm

email The Convergence of Email, Mobile, and Social Marketing Social media and mobile are prompting email marketers to reexamine the effectiveness of their current programs. With new social networks, mobile devices, and mobile apps constantly entering the digital arena, it’s easy to feel confused or overwhelmed.

This session will provide an opportunity to pause, think, and take action on the intersection of email, social, and mobile. It will: •• Explore how and why the mobile age is transforming the “inbox.”

•• Explain why your email marketing is a strong foundation for social and mobile marketing success.

•• Equip you with ways to immediately optimize for and navigate the social and mobile currents.

Moderator: •• Sundeep Kapur, Digital Evangelist, NCR Corp.

Speaker: •• Britni Salazar, Communications Marketing Specialist, RIVS 2:00–3:00pm

Paid PPC Campaign Management: Creating and Sustaining an Auditing Framework Remember the days when all your keywords were in one campaign and maybe a handful of ad groups, and your biggest PPC pain was your daily budget? This may be a bit too nostalgic, but with all the changes in paid search advertising over the last couple of years, it almost feels that drastic.

Establishing an ongoing PPC auditing plan is like creating an exercise regimen: you have to create a plan and stick to it. During this discussion, you will learn: •• How to create a weekly and monthly auditing plan.

•• How to prioritize elements of the audit.

•• How even the most mature campaigns can benefit from simple audit/test optimizations.

•• Which areas of an account need to be continuously audited (and which do not).

Moderator: •• Carolyn Shelby, Director of SEO, Chicago Tribune/435 Digital Speakers: •• Joseph Kerschbaum, Senior Strategist, PPC Associates •• Kayla Kurtz, Senior Digital Advisor, Hanapin Marketing

sesconference.com • SES 11

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