Marketers' Guide on Search Engine Marketing

Incitez SEM
Guide
for Marketers
2011

Table of Content
  Introduction
  Goals, KPIs, and Targeting

  SEM Measurement with Web Analytics
  SEM Budgeting & ROI
  Branding & Brand Keywords
  In-house SEM Management
  SEM Outsourcing Guide
  Benefits of Content Network

Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing

Introduction to
Search Engine Marketing


SERP: Search Engine Results Page

Sponsored search results
(PPC Marketing)

Natural search results
(SEO)


What is Search Engine
Marketing?

  Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is keyword
driven, demand generation marketing. It
consists of search engine optimization

(SEO) and pay-per-click management (PPC).

  Almost half of all searches are to find a
product or service to buy, and advertisers
can pay for a click-through via sponsored
search listing (PPC) for a qualified lead to a
potential purchase.

  Note: In many Asian markets, when people talk
about SEM, it just means PPC. This guide does
not cover knowledge on SEO though the term
“SEM” is adopted in this guide.


Benefits of SEM

  Cost effective marketing. There is no cost
to advertisers until someone shows interest
in the ad by clicking on it.

  Targeted marketing. People search for what
they are interested; unlike push marketing
with mass media like TV, SEM is more
targeted, permission based, and can be
constantly optimized for better
performance.

  Broad reach. With SEM, even SME can
target worldwide with limited budget.

  Measurable. Incitez runs data-driven SEM
campaigns which are measurable with
radical improvement in campaign
performance.


Benefits of SEM

  Flexible budgeting. You can spend as
much as millions per month or as little as
a few hundred; it’s up to you.

  ROI driven marketing. With proper
tracking, your SEM marketing can be
measured against ROI.

  Timing. You can engage potential
customers at precisely the right moment.


Common Goals of SEM
campaign

  To generate online sales. Ifyou have an
e-commerce store with online transaction
capabilities, you want to generate sales

online via SEM. Choices of KPI are:
  Cost Per Conversion or Cost Per Sale
(CPS): SEM cost divided by number of
sales
  Return On Advertising Spending
(ROAS): a measure of the effectiveness
of your SEM marketing program. ROAS
is computed by dividing revenue
resulting from SEM campaigns by the
search engine spend.


Common Goals of SEM
campaign

  To generate online leads. Drive your
potential buyers to the site and get them to
leave their contact details. Cost Per Lead
(CPL) is widely used KPI for B2B SEM

campaigns.

  To drive online registrations. Registrations
are essential to online community sites. You
want to understand the cost per registration
value and keep reducing it.

  To drive traffic for awareness marketing.
Take note of the bounce rate, average time
on site, and engagement. However, if
average time on site is too long could
indicate a bad site architecture so that
visitors find it very hard to find the right
information.


Common Goals of SEM
campaign

  Others. ALWAYS define a goal for your
SEM campaigns; there must be more
than visits you expect from online users.

Here's a list of more goals you can
define:
  Leave a comment
  Subscribe via RSS or Email
  Submit contact form
  Download a document
  Click on a link or a button
  Visit a specific page


SEM Targeting

  Keywords Targeting. SEM is keywords
driven marketing, enabling you a better
targeted campaign.

  Geographic targeting. Either targeting a
country or several cities, you can do so
with all search engines.

  Language.


SEM Targeting

  Related Websites. For finance products,
you may want to targets finance websites
visitors like those on WSJ.com, FT.com,.

You can do so with:
  Placement targeting
  Contextual targeting
  Ad scheduling. Control the days and
times your SEM campaigns target.


SEM Measurement with
Web Analytics

Traditional Advertising
V.S. SEM

Half the money I spend on
advertising is wasted.

The trouble is I don't know which
half.

Luckily, what John Wanamaker
said is not true in SEM
marketing, which is measurable
with web analytics.


Web Analytics

  Visitors. From your search engine
reports, you can tell how many clicks are
generated, which roughly equals to the

number of visits.
  Bounced visits. Normal visitors landed
on your site after clicking on your PPC
listing; but he was not interested after
a glimpse of your site, and he simply
exit. This (bounce rate) is something
you can get from most web analytics
report.


Web Analytics

  Content.
  Is your site content interesting and
attractive enough to keep the visitors

there?
  If you run an online store, you want to
find out on which step of the checking
out process do most exits occur.
  Can people find what you expect them
to?
  Which are the top visited pages?
  Which pages have the highest bounce
rates or exit rates?


Web Analytics

  Traffic.
  Where are your visitors from?
  Search engine? Natural search traffic

or paid search?
  Email campaign?
  Direct access?
  Referred by some other websites?
Which websites referred traffic with
high conversions?
  What search terms do people use to
find your site in search engines?


Web Analytics

  Conversions. Conversion is your goal of
online marketing campaigns; different
business may have different goals, but

most goals can be tracked with web
analytics.
  Which SEM campaign drives most
conversions or sales?
  What are the top converting keywords?
  CPA value (cost per conversion or cost
per acquisition).


Web Analytics

  Search queries V.S. SEM Keywords
  Search queries are different from PPC
keywords. Queries are the exact terms

people use in search engines to search.
  SEM Keywords are what you use in
SEM campaigns along with different
matching options to target your
potential customers.
  You need web analytics to "catch" all
converting queries from SEM
campaigns so that you can update your
SEM with more targeted keywords. In
addition, the search queries are helpful
to your search engine optimization.


FREE Web Analytics Tools

  Google Analytics
  Woopra (real time web tracking)

  Statcounter
  Piwik (open source web analytics)


SEM Budgeting

  What’s important to include in the SEM
report for the management?
  Total budget

  Clicks / Visits
  Conversions
(such as downloads, registrations,
clicks, number of sales and etc.)
  Revenue generated online
  ROI (return on investment)


Estimate SEM Spend on
Google

1.  Generate a list of keywords with
search engine keywords tools like
these:

  adwords.google.com/select/
KeywordToolExternal
  tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/
seobook/

2.  Use Google traffic estimator to
estimate the cost and clicks.
  adwords.google.com/select/
TrafficEstimatorSandbox

3.  Take seasonality and promotions into
consideration to adjust the estimate.


Estimate SEM Spend on
Other SE

  Referring to search engine market
share in different market, relatively
estimate the spend and clicks on

other search engines.

  Refer to user demographic data in
each search engine as well for more
accurate estimate; but this sometimes
requires experience.

  Estimating SEM spend takes time and
experience; an easy way is to ask your
agency to come up with a budget
proposal with verifications.


Estimate Conversions & ROI

•  Equals clicks (roughly)
Visits

•  Conversions = Visits X CR
•  Get conversion rate (CR) estimate from history performance
Conversio
ns

•  Return = Total online revenue - SEM spend
(possibly including agency account management fee)
Return
•  No revenue directly generated online: assign a money value to each conversion

•  ROI = Return / SEM Spend
ROI


Branding & Brand
Keywords

Impact of Branding on
Search Ad Effectiveness

  Microsoft and Sony
conducted a research study to evaluate
the impact of branding on Sony’s search

ad effectiveness.
  The results illustrate that exposure to
search ad considerably lifted purchase
intent and drove likelihood of
recommendation.


Impact of Branding on
Search Ad Effectiveness

  Branded search terms proved to further
enhance the value of search advertising.
This study demonstrated:

  Exposure of search ad lifted purchase
intent and drove likelihood of
recommendation.
  Search ads with branded terms were
more effective in driving brand lift than
generic terms.
  Audiences exposed to Sony search ads
had less positive attitudes towards
competitors’ brands.


The Brand Lift Of Search

  In a whitepaper released by Enquiro showed a
significant correlation between companies in the
top organic (natural search) and paid search
(PPC) placements and consumer brand affinity,
brand recall and purchase intent.

  A 16% point increase in brand association
when brand is in top ad and top organic
listings
  A 2.2x lift in aided brand recall when brand is
in top ad and top organic listings
  When brand is in top ad and top organic
listings, purchase consideration increases 8%
points
  Consumers are less likely to consider
purchasing a brand that doesn’t appear on the
search results page
  Even for branded queries, presence in top ad
and top organic listings boosts purchase intent



  The eye tracking study reveals consumer insights:
  Brand fixations occurred in the URL and title of
the listing; not in the description
  Best practice: Place your brand in the title,

URL, and as close to the start of the
description as possible in your ad and
organic listings
  Subjects with established affinity for the brand
spent 25% less time on the top ad listing,
jumping down to the organic listings 73%
faster than the non-affinity group
  Best practice: Ad listings appear to have a
greater opportunity to lift brand affinity
among new customers; write and target
them as such â€“ especially for upper
funnel queries



  Lessons:
  Your investment in brand advertising
increases with search

  Advertise on unbranded and branded
keywords
  Tailor your ad to prospects


Identify the Trend of Brand
Searches

Find more online trend tools here: http://bit.ly/online-trend


How Search Branding
Works

  SERPs basically include sponsored and organic listings,
each of which consists of title, description, and display
URL.


Should You Bid on Your Brand
Name?

  Your website probably comes first in
natural result on brand name search; but
what happens when your competitors or

affiliates bid on that brand name too?

  Without bidding on your own brand
name, your natural listing could show in
the 2nd or even 4th position.


Should You Bid on Your Brand
Name?

  Bidding on your brand name allows you
to control the ad copy that appears in the
sponsored search and control the landing

page.

  Appearing in both the organic and
sponsored search engine results can
increase click-through rates significantly.


Search Branding
Measurement

  Search branding can be measured
through engagement. The following
metrics can be helpful to you to get

started:
  Average Time on Site
  Page Views per Visit
  Form submissions
  Downloads
  RSS / Email subscriptions


Should You Hire A PPC
Staff?

  How much have you been constantly
spending on paid search campaigns
every month? More importantly, how

much extra do you need to pay in terms
of account management fee if you
outsource to an agency or third party to
do it?

  How many markets do you target? Do you
have the resources to handle difference
languages?

  How many search engines do you use?


SEM Qualification

  Web Analytics. Be familiar with the basics
of web analytics; not necessarily the exact
web analytics software your company uses.
If your company uses Google Analytics ,

sponsor him/her to take the IQ test.

  Search Engines. Depending on your target
markets, it's important the search marketer
has got experience in top search engines of
each market. However, if a person is very
familiar with one search engine (especially
Google), it won't be a problem to get used
to the others.

  Language Abilities. This is a must. The
person you are to hire must be capable of
reading and writing in all local languages in
your MAIN markets.


SEM Qualification

  Experience.
  Related industry experience
  Optimization. What have been done to

optimize the campaign?
  Past campaign objectives and outcome.
Is it just driving traffic or ROI driven
campaigns?
  Monthly budget one has handled
independently (and, you may want to
ask how your candidate did budgeting).

  Business Acumen. SEM is not technical
work; someone without business acumen
can hardly work out a proper SEM
strategy.


Set KPIs for SEM Team

  Total Conversions from PPC
  PPC ROAS
Reward the

  PPC Cost Per Conversion team
accordingly.
  Conversion Rate


When You Might Want to
Outsource

  Limited staff but too many products to
promote

  No experience managing SEM in-house
  Return on the PPC investment was not
what you were looking for

  Lack of capabilities in certain markets
(especially language abilities)


Alternative to SEM
Outsourcing

  In-house SEM
  Ask for help from Search Engines

  This might be difficult when you have to
deal with multiple search engines in
several markets
  Not all search engine account
managers are concerned about your
business performance from search

With Incitez, you can completely outsource your PPC
campaigns or have our optimizers to work with your in-house
PPC staff.


What to Ask for in SEM
Request for Proposal (RFP)

  Company registration certificate
  Years of experience

  Past accounts handled
  Past accounts managed in the same
industry and the produced results

  Bio and qualifications ofthe staff who
will manage your SEM campaign; roles
and responsibilities; and, how many
accounts each person manages.


What to Ask for in SEM
Request for Proposal (RFP)

  Who builds and maintains the keyword list
(and how)

  What bidding system the agency uses. If

they have their own system, it's a good sign.
But you want to know more details of the
bidding system. You don't want to pay an
agency tens of thousands every month who
rely entirely on machine's input.

  How the agency handles seasonal effects
and promotions

  How frequent a report will be submitted and
the content of the report

  Who will analyze the campaign performance


What to look for?

  Meet the guy who is actually managing PPC
for you and find out the years and industry
of experience

  KPI. Ask the agency to recommend a set of
KPI after sharing your business objective. If
only very basics like clicks and CTR are
recommended, stay away from those
agencies.

  Fee. Are they charging a fair amount of
account managing fee? Compare and ask
agencies to verify what services are
included.

  Tracking and reporting. Ifyou are not into
web analytics, ask for a reporting template
and see whether it makes sense to you.


Benefits of Content
Network

Search Network V.S. Content
Network

Contextual
Matching

Keyword Search
Engine
Driven
Placement

Search Content
Network
Network

Search
Search
Engine Websites
Products
Partners
Property


Benefits of Content
Network

  Reach. If you want to reach broader audience,
content network helps. Just Google AdWords
content network reaches over 70% of unique
Internet users around the world.

  Awareness. The content network has the
advantage of reaching potential customers at
different points of the buying cycle. If you are to
launch products of a new category, search can
hardly help (unless you run off-line campaigns)
without content network driving awareness.

  Branding. Most search networks (one exception is
Baidu) only allows text ads, which makes content
network more valuable for online branding
campaigns. You can run text ads, image ads, and
video ads on content network pages.


Google Content Network

  Ads on the Google Content Network can be
an effective way to gain additional
conversion beyond those you get via search.

  When used in combination with Search,
the median advertiser has a content CPA
that's within approximately 2% of their
Search CPA.
  The Content Network drives nearly 20%
of total conversions for the median
advertisers

  Conversion rates are higher for advertisers
who used either of two AdWords campaign
management controls: the Conversion
Optimizer and site exclusion.


Content Network
Recommendation

  Consider complementing your search
campaigns with campaigns on the
Content Network, if you haven't done so

already.

  Use tools for content optimization such
as the Conversion Optimizer, Placement
Performance Reports, and the Site and
Category Exclusion tool. They can help
you further tailor your Content Network
performance to meet your advertising
goals.


About Incitez

  Incitez is a data-driven digital marketing
company providing digital strategy
consulting and digital marketing

campaign development. We partner with
clients to identify their opportunities in
digital space, address their challenges,
and advance their businesses with
custom digital solutions.

  You can find out more about us at our
website: www.incitez.com


Incitez Search

  Data-driven search marketing; campaign
performance are constantly measured
and optimized

  Performance-based pricing; you pay for
what you get
(more conversions; higher ROI)

  Certified search specialists by Google
For more, please visit:
www.incitez.com/channels/sem
and Baidu

  Multilingual capabilities
  Solutions: search strategy, in-house
training, campaign management


Thank You!

Contact Incitez
Rocky Fu
E: rockyfu@incitez.com

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/rockyfu


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