Online Marketing Best Practices

Confidential and Proprietary Information

KC DM Days – Online Marketing Best Practices

March 22nd, 2011

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Contents

Three Deep Background Setting up for Measurement Organic Search Paid Search Email Marketing Maximizing your Metrics

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Confidential and Proprietary Information 3


Three Deep’s Key to Success

Invest 10% of your analytics budget in technology and 90% in people*

*Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik, May 2006

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Three Deep Capabilities and Certifications

Over 30 person online marketing team (7 MBAs)

10 person home improvement call center– Scripted using best practice

methodologies Manage $3+ million in paid search

spending Manage 30+ million consumer DB 100 million emails forecasted for

2011 Fortune 100 and Home Improvement

Top 100 Clients 35+ years of home improvement

experience More opportunities to leverage

additional services Certified by Google to manage

AdWords accounts and advertising spend

Exclusive Google certification for online analysis, just 1 of 40 US firms

-Three Deep named the 9th Best Place to Work Among Small Businesses in Minneapolis/St. Paul 2010

- #1238 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America by Inc. Magazine 5000

-Ranked #18th Fastest Growing Company in Twin Cities

-

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Three Deep National Brands

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Acknowledgements

Jarad Collier

Jeff Sauer

Scott Pearson

Alex Pokorny

Diane Kulseth

Jake Dietrich

Greg Miller

Brian Poe

Mariona Belles

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JobinHume

Jenny Nielson


MEASUREMENT

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Start with Measurement

The foundation of any campaign is how you’re going to measure it afterwards– Easily overlooked– Requires up front consideration

Can be applied at multiple levels of a campaign depending on response mechanisms available

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Measurement Tools

Measurement is faster in the digital world– Ad serving tools

• Adwords• DoubleClick

– Web metrics applications– Social media tools

Can centralize a lot of this

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Measurement Tools

Utilize Google Analytics– Either as your primary site analytics or as a secondary source

for redundant data – Other tools can be used that cost $$$ and are actually harder

to use

Why Google Analtyics?– It’s Free– It’s Awesome– It’s Powerful– It’s on 50% of the world’s websites

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Measurement

Google Analytics has a tool to build tracking strings for your campaigns URL Builder: bit.ly/GAURLBuilder

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Measurement

Use a link shortener before posting:– Bit.ly– Goo.gl

Utilize a “Friendly URL” or PURL in your offline communications– Redirect the Friendly to the Tracking URL

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www.threedeepmarketing.com/compliance?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=Twitterfeed&utm_content=Twitter

http://bit.ly/aR39eQ=

www.threedeepmarketing.com/kcdma?utm_source=KCDMA&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=Speaking&utm_content=slideshow

ThreeDeepMarketing.com/DMDays =ThreeDeepMarketing.com/DarrenSelberg


Measurement

Utilize the link in your communication

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View traffic from your campaign and drill down into the other variables

Measurement

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Measurement

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SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

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Search Is at the Center of Online Marketing

User sent to website after clicking paid listing

Display, rich media, and video ads build interest and awareness; users search for more info

67% of Internet users have gone online to search for a product advertised offline

89% of consumers research products online; 63% purchase offline

Offline

Audio

Print

Mobile

TV

Online Networks• Reaches 76% of U.S.

Internet users monthly• 180B+ ad impressions

monthly

• Hundreds of thousands of advertisers and publishers

• Target by site, category, keyword, geography, daypart

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Search Engine Optimization

Organic Search

Paid Search

Paid

Sea

rch

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Search Engine Optimization

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So what is the value of being in the top listings? Consider:– Google’s Search Result page has 10 listings.– And this is where they eyes go:


Organic Search

Organic Search Results

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Organic Search

Value of SEO Key Elements to start with Local Search Optimization Video Search Optimization

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Organic Search

Consumer searches for a phrase

Results displayed based on a complex algorithm of factors

“search term”

Results based on -Relevancy-Authority

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Simpler way to consider it:– Relevancy – how well the site/page content matches the

search term– Authority – how often is the site clicked on for this search

term, how many links/clicks come into it on regular basis


Organic Search

A practical example:– Using Golden Retriever: 550,000 searches a month

• Position #1: 45.46% of all clicks : 249,150 a month in the US

• Position #2: 15.69% of all clicks : 86,245• Position #3: 10.09% of all clicks : 55,495• Position #4: 5.49% of all clicks : 30,195• Position #5: 5.00% of all clicks : 27,150• Position #6: 3.94% of all clicks : 21,670• Position #7: 2.51% of all clicks : 13,805• Position #8: 2.94% of all clicks : 16,170• Position #9: 1.97% of all clicks : 10,835• Position #10: 2.71% of all clicks : 14,905

Total: 95.91% of all clicks occur on Page #1 of SERPs (527,505 of 550,000)

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Organic Search

So what is the value of being in the top listings? Consider:– 1% of all Golden Retriever visitors “convert” by signing up for a

newsletter– Lifetime value of a customer: $25.00– # 1 Ranking: 249,150 * 1% = 2,491 sign ups– #2 Ranking: 86,245 *1% = 862 signups

Difference in Lifetime value of those visitors = $42,275.00

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Organic Search

So where do I start?– Page titles– Keywords in the URL/Page name– Alt Tags– Anchor Text

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Organic Search

Page Title: A clear way to define what a page is about– Meta Titles (Title tags)

• The title of the page that is normally used by search engines as part of the snippet (the short description after a link).

– Meta Description: A short description of the page that is normally used by search engines as the snippet (the short description after a link).

• This is not primarily for SEO benefit, it’s purpose is to be click enticing.

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Organic Search

Use Keyword Tools to determine what the title, description and content should contain.– The keyword suggestion tool from Google Adwords for general

searching Use single words in order of popularity with thought to

relevancy.

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Organic Search

Identifying the most commonly used search terms and incorporating them in both Title & Description yields better results– A search for “Cane Sugar” yields:

– Bold text is what was searched - found in the title, description & URL - drawing the eye to the link

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Organic Search

Include the Keyword in URL or Page. Title

URL/Page name

Let’s take an example: www.site.com/dogs or www.site.com/dogs/golden-retriever– Suggests that Golden Retrievers fit under

the category of Dogs.– This creates a relationship to my site

• has content about dogs, and Golden Retrievers.

– Google’s algorithm is a program• understands basic relationships based on

the information it finds. • creates a relationship to my site of dogs

and golden retrievers, which are somehow related to the word ‘dogs’. 30


Using Alt Tags for Images– A search engine sends out crawlers

• Crawlers are programs designed to read all the code in a website and follow the links. They crawl the page.

– Images are mostly unreadable to the crawlers (read only Text)• Crawlers are very basic, they can’t search, select buttons or

anything else. Just read code and follow links.

– Adding an alt tag along with the image in your site code allows it to be found

Organic Search

Poker

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Organic Search

Avoid using Frames (Why Flash is bad)

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What your site looks like What Google sees


Organic Search Anchor Text

– Link from site A to site B with the linked text of Keyword . – Gives added “weight” to Google’s measure of Authority– Indexes the Keyword as being associated with the site

www.alex-pets.com

www.dogs.com

dog site

What Google Sees

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Strongest Page Example

Strongest Page Example– Exact Match Domain www.keyboards.com– Linked from www.computer-parts.com as keyboards– Page title is Keyboards– On the page is an image, with the proper alt tag.

Keyboards

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Build Links to your site to improve page ranks– Utilize internal linking and keyword usage in URLs

Organic Search

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Build Links to your site to improve page ranks– Post/Submit links to relevant Authority sites– Submit content to Article submission sites

• Ehow• Squidoo• eZine

– Place links on other owned properties– Link baiting (writing articles that invite review or

posts/discussion)

Organic Search

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Check depth of the website - each page should be possible to find within 3-4 clicks from the homepage. – Hub Pages and other category pages can help reduce the

depth, assisting in both the user experience and the ability for a search engine to index all pages.

Organic Search

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Home Page

Articles

Products

ResourcesProduct Family

Product Family

Article 2

Article 1

Product 2

Product 1


Organic Search


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Local Search Optimization Local search is increasing in prominence

– 86% of consumers go to the Internet as their first choice when searching for local businesses.*

Useful for Retail & Service companies

*Web Traffic Partners Jan. 201139


Local Search Optimization

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Optimize for Mobile Search

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Claim ownership of business listings Create unique Google Places Pages for all locations Get reviews in Google Places Optimize for local keywords and service descriptions


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Organic Search


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YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, representing over 25% of U.S. Google site

searches*

*ComScore, Dec. 2008


Video Search Optimization

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First Video Result

First Organic Result

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Video results are shown in Google BEFORE the 1st Organic result



How can I get my video to show up in a search?– Video Sitemaps or MRSS (Media Really Simple Syndication)

• Crawlers cannot read the videos without a sitemap and specific required code

– Title – Description

• YouTube will create the sitemap during upload

– Use Closed Captioning on the video• Google will index closed caption text.• YouTube CC can be created after the video is posted.• YouTube offers a free auto closed caption tool

– However the CC it creates has to be edited by hand– And if it fails, it cannot be run twice (as of Sept ’10)

• Other CC creators are available online.

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YouTube has an unusual search algorithm.– Based on single words and the order of the tags (and title) is

extremely important. – Start with the popular single term, and then define the search

down to the specific phraseTitles & Tags – Examples:• Not optimized:

– infant formula, infant powder concentrate, infant feeding

• Optimized: – infant, formula, feeding, powder, concentrate.

If your tagging is out of order, you won’t show up.– ‘Gerber feeding for infants’ wouldn’t work as well.

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Popular term Moderate term/Branded term Unpopular term



Hosted Good for monetization

and traffic to websites Benefits: Control over analytics,

monetization, UI, branding.

Control over exposure to related videos

Distributed Good for branding and

generating views YouTube optimization is

key (largest video site) Benefits: Leverage authority Leverage

community/audience Host site in charge of

technical maintenance

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Resources– Creating a video sitemap:

– http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=80472

– MRSS (Media Really Simple Syndication)• http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?

hl=en&answer=183265• Where to submit the MRSS: http://www.reelseo.com/submit-videos-

rss-mrss/

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Search Measurement

So how do I know if my efforts have worked– Rank Checker tools (Google’s

WebMaster tools)

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Search Measurement

So how do I know if my efforts have worked– Pre/Post metrics for top landing pages (or those pages

optimized)• Increase in page views• Decrease in bounce rates

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Search Measurement

So how do I know if my efforts have worked– Pre/Post metrics for non-paid keywords

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Questions/Break

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SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

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Paid Search

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Paid Search

Why should I use it? Campaign Structure Writing/Testing Ads Landing Pages Utilize Extensions Budget Management Linking to Analytics

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Paid Search

U.S. online ads spending will reach $25.1 billion this year, with search being the single biggest category and social media marketing taking over from display media, according to eMarketer's latest report.

eMarketer's study expects the Internet to account for 15.1% of total media spending in 2011 and over 20% by 2014.

The firm sees search accounting for $12.7 billion, or nearly half, of overall advertising budgets in 2011.

Source: eMarketer, Nov 2010

Billions and % change

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Paid Search

Direct Sales

Product Launch

Lead Generati

on

PR

Top of mind

searches

Branding

Brand Protectio

n

Media Suppor

t

Product Associati

on

Viral Launch

Pad

Holidays

Seasonal

Tool Launch

Special Occasio

ns / Events

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Paid Search

Success is ultimately driven by generating more efficient clicks– More clicks at lower cost per click

Ad position in the search results drives response (depends on certain factors)– Bid amount – Daily budget– Relevance of the ad to the keyword– Quality score

• Clickthrough Rate• Relevancy• Landing Page quality.

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Paid Search

Campaign Structure Writing/Testing Ads Landing Pages Budget Management Linking to Analytics

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Paid Search

Structure your campaigns around the site content, goals, main areas of focus or geo-targeted locations

Use Keyword Tools to determine what the title, description and content should contain.

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Paid Search

Utilize Google Trends to identify patterns in seasonality or geography

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Paid Search

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Paid Search Build out granular adgroup themes to be as

specific as possible

Broad Targeting

Specific Targeting

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Paid Search

Use only a small handful of keywords per adgroup Include Brand name in keywords

– Bidding on your brand gives you more exposure– Protects your brand reputation– Gets people deeper into your site– Makes the search experience easier for the user

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Paid Search


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Paid Search

Write ads utilizing the keywords within the adgroups

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Paid Search

Test ads to achieve higher conversion rates

Conversion Rate:

1.80%

Conversion Rate:

3.12%

73% increase

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Paid Search Utlize Ad Extenstions

– User differentiation in ads to stand out

Google Product Search Integration

Google Checkout Badges

Location Extensions

Reviews and Ratings extensions

Product listing ads

Sitelinks in Ads

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Paid Search


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Paid Search

Direct ads to specific landing pages built out around each adgroup or theme

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Paid Search

What not to do

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Paid Search

Landing Page aligned

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Paid Search

Proper alignment

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Paid Search

Test your destination pages– Tool available within Adwords

Control Experiment

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Keywords in Ad Group split between destinations

Paid Search

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Ads split between Test & Control pages

Paid Search

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Paid Search

Evaluate results and roll out to all impressions

Control – 4% Conversion

Experiment – 8% Conversion

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Paid Search

Campaign Structure Writing/Testing Ads Landing Pages Utilize Extensions Budget Management Linking to Analytics

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Paid Search

Manage your budgets closely– Daily monitoring of costs and campaign performance– Raising/lowering bids to optimize ad groups

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Paid Search Manage your budgets closely

– Set rules to control budget

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Paid Search Manage your budgets closely

– Implement cost per acquisition pricing model

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Paid Search


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Paid Search

So how do I take my Paid search measurement to the next level?

Link Adwords to Analytics

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Paid Search

Integrate standard AdWords metrics into the Google Analytics interface, including: Clicks, Impressions, Costs and ROI– No need to build in tracking to URLs (automated via Google)– Can hold your AdWords keywords to a greater level of

accountability– Allow you to increase conversion rates and lower expenses

based on site metrics – not just click data– Enable you to tightly control your ad budget by only bidding on

keywords that produce positive ROI

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Paid Search

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Paid Search

AdWords reporting provides standard analytics metrics at a campaign, ad group, and keyword level

(Traffic Sources > AdWords > Campaigns)

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Paid Search

It also brings in your Adwords data (cost, impressions, clicks) in order to conduct deeper analysis on conversions, costs per conversion, etc.

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Paid Search

Day Part reports shows AdWords performance based on the time of day.

(Traffic Sources > AdWords > Day Parts)

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Paid Search

Position Analysis in Google Analytics– Keyword Position report gives insight into how keywords

perform at different ad positions on the search engine results pages

(Traffic Sources > AdWords > Keyword Positions)

www.threedeepmarketing.com | @jeffsauer | @threedeep90


Paid Search

Results?– Lowering the average cost per click while increasing the Click

Thru Rate by optimizing the ad copy– Lowering Cost Per Acquisition while increasing total

acquisitions by managing the budget based on conversions

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Avg. Cost per Click vs. Click Thru Rate


Questions/Break

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EMAIL MARKETING

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Email Marketing

Email Compliance List Management Deliverability Content Integration with Social Media Testing

*Epsilon Q42010 Email Trends & Benchmarks March2011

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Email Compliance

CAN-SPAM – These laws promised to provide remedies against annoying and unsolicited bulk email known as “spam”. Major rules include: – Header information (identifiers such as To, From, IP

Address): • must not be materially false or materially misleading;

– Subject line: • must not mislead the recipient about a material fact regarding

the email’s contents or subject matter;– Return email address:

• must contain a functioning email address that the recipient can use to request no further messages;

– Contents: • the email must (i) clearly and conspicuously identify that it is

an ad, (ii) provide clear and conspicuous notice the recipient may unsubscribe for additional emails, and (iii) contain a valid postal address for the sender (may include a valid post office or private mailbox address).

– Requests to unsubscribe:• if a recipient requests unsubscribe from receiving additional

emails, emails matching the unsubscribe request must be honored within 10 days with a mechanism that is available from a single web page and that operates with a single click;

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Email Compliance

Internal Opt-in Policies – Signup Disclosure – Focus on aligning

user expectations with the communications you plan to send.

– Avoid user error – Utilize data collection tools that build in redundant data entry

– Go opt-in, not opt-out – Avoid pre-checked boxes

– Double opt-in - Explicitly requesting a user to confirm the email address to be his/her own.

• Typically by using an automatic confirmation email sent immediately on submission

– Use Simple Contact Options Privacy Policies

– Do not send key personal information by email

– Explain what the information collected is used for, and who else will be using it

– Explain how long the information is stored

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Email Marketing



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Building & Growing Your Lists

Convert offline consumers to online- – Add consumers by advertising in the organization’s web site or

print publication.– Sponsor an event– Send a hard copy postcard

Invite readers to help– Include words like “Please Forward Newsletter” in the subject lines – Or use Referral links where consumers can sign up friends– Run a contest. Let your contacts know that they will get one entry

in a drawing for each person they refer to your list. Co-registration

– Providing a form hosted on a reputable 3rd party site List rentals

– Renting lists from questionable sources who claim (but can’t prove) that list members have opted in only builds your list in the short term. In the longer term, it’s actually a great way to get flagged as a spammer.

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Building & Growing Your Lists

Utilize a preference center – Online area allowing subscribers to change their email address

or contact information, update their preferences, or select which list they want to subscribe to or unsubscribe from.

– Benefits include:• Retention – Unsatisfied subscribers may choose to update

preferences vs. unsubscribing• Strengthening the Relationship - Focusing on the preferences and

needs of your subscribers builds confidence and trust. It tells subscribers that you’re serious about meeting their needs.

• Reduce Undeliverables - 1/3 of email addresses change each year. Inviting subscribers periodically to update their personal information can ensure that your mailing list is up-to-date.

– www.freshaddress.com – realitime verification & ECOA

• Improve Segmentation - Accurate, detailed data will allow you to produce more targeted and customized emails, providing higher value to the subscriber.

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Email Marketing



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Ensuring Deliverability

I have a large list and Open/Click thru rates are high – why worry about deliverability– Higher deliverability means less chance of spam blocking– Results (from testing, etc.) are more relevant/accurate if your

list is clean What happens if I keep sending undeliverable email?

– You get blocked• Messages end up in junk folders• Senders get blacklisted• Can be fined – up to $millions

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Review "delivered" rates trends– Rate of acceptance– Unknown-user rate

• High unknown-user rate (in excess of 5%) is frequently correlated with deliverability issues.

Use a seed list – With addresses from various email clients. i.e. outlook,

Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, Aol, etc.– Are messages placed in a bulk mail folder or discarded after

acceptance? Review trends in open and click rates by receiving domain Review your content

– There are many systems that filter based on content. Sender Reputation - “credit score” for email broadcasters

informed by a range of factors , based on IP Address– Volume of email sent, number of bounce‐backs generated, and

the number of spam complaint notifications that they receive.– www.senderscore.org

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Clean your list regularly, honor unsubscribe and SPAM feedback promptly– Review the overall trend of number

of messages when a subscriber hits the "report spam" button relative to the number of messages accepted for delivery at that domain.

Monitor feedback loops at ISPs like AOL

Check Blacklists– Pivotal Veracity

Avoid SPAM traps– Best sources are Microsoft's SNDS

service and Sender Score (www.senderscore.org).

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Address List Decay (Active and Inactive List) – Keep updating your distribution lists to handle inactive users,

bounces, and spam complaints. – Establish Internal Frequency Policies

• Shift control from list level to user engagement levels. • Set frequency based on where users are in their lifecycle.

– If they are actively responding to your communications, then it is likely they are happy with the frequency and content.

– If they are not responding to your communication, then allocate more resources to improving your content and making it more relevant.

– Segment out your inactives • Place these subscribers on a separate list that can be tracked easily

when sending your emails. – Attempt to re-engage.

• Do something out of the ordinary • Acknowledge that subscribers are not engaged • Get them to click -- learn why they haven't been engaged

– place the subscribers that engage back on your "active" list– Purge non-responders

• Don't purge after your first attempt to re-engage subscribers. • Reduces cost. • Reduces chances of blacklisting

– ISPs are now considering engagement in their deliverability equations

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Email Marketing



105


Content

Keep it relevant– Know who’s on your lists.

• Ask your subscribers to provide relevant personal information and provide them with the regular opportunity to update it.

• Know when they want to hear from you– Allow your subscribers to tell you when they want to hear from

you, and what types of communications they want to receive. – TIMING

• Blast vs. Triggered or activity based (consumer timetable vs. marketing timetable)

Keep it Fresh– Designs should be helpful & complimentary to content– Incorporate novelty only when it strengthens your message– Key Questions:

• Is “click here” a compelling call to action? Have our customers become so used to seeing it they tune it out? Does it make our emails look spammy?

• Do our customers want to see animated gifs in every email? How can we use them to enhance content without being a distraction?

• Horizontal scrolling allows you to utilize a different design, but does it work on mobile? And are customers used to scrolling all the way to the right to find your content?

106


Content

Rendering images can be a key driver to dissatisfaction Verify that key information, links, etc. is visible in all

formats– Always assign height and width dimensions to them and when

necessary fill them with alt text.– Use ALT TEXT to your advantage and make sure links are

clickable even when images are turned off. For some types of communications, a plain-text message

works best. It puts the most relevant information in front of the recipient in a convenient way.

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Content

What not to do - #1– Key message is about a toll free number correction– Number is not visible with images disabled

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Content What not to do - #2

– Legal copy identifies unsubscribe process but no link is visible

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Content

What not to do - #3– Good alt-text but blue text appears “clickable” and is not

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Content What to Do

No images Images Enabled

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Content

Design for everyone– Mobile device usage increasing*

• 85% of smartphone users check their email on their smartphones • 82% actually read their email on their smartphone. -

– Make your template flexible so it can be used over a variety of clients and look good.

Test email rending over a variety of platforms before a single customer sees your email. Some useful tools:– Pivotal Veracity– Return Path– Litmus

Utilize Templates– Improves speed

• Allows for quicker design for multiple emails• Can interchange parts, without completely redesigning emails

– Can enable Dynamic Content• Useful for segmentation

– Integrates with Web content and content management systems• Reduce proofing time

112*ExactTarget (2009)


Email Marketing



113


Integration with Social Meda

Utilize Social Media to grow your lists– Collect email address at the point of conversion when

consumers link from Facebook and Twitter• Facebook Connect

– Feature winners of Facebook competitions in your email newsletter

– Promote exclusive deals available only to email subscribers on Facebook and Twitter.

– Post links to Web versions of your best emails on Facebook and Twitter.

– Include "like" buttons in email newsletters and promotions, but give customers a reason to use them.

– Encourage email subscribers to post questions on Facebook and/or Twitter.

– Include questions posted on Twitter and Facebook in your email and answer them.

– Create an email segment containing Twitter Followers and send them additional "insider information" through email.

114


Integration with Social Media

Allow for sharing of your email content where appropriate– The ability to share is everywhere– “Like” & “Share this” buttons

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Use Sharing as part of communication strategy vs. just a creative element– Consider your content, programming

capabilities, and goals before adding sharing icons to your messages.

• Is the content something the recipient will want to share?

• Can we capture information and metrics on forwarded emails?

• Once shared, what do we want the referees to do?

• Why are we asking customers to share this?


Email Marketing



116


Testing

Testing is so easy with email that it should be done with almost every email. – Subject lines– Images/content– Offers– Segmentation– Dynamic content vs. Static content

Measure thru multiple tools– Open & Click data from the email server– Response & visit data thru campaign tracking on the site

• Using those tracking URLs

www.mysite.com?utm_source=testlist&utm_medium=email&&utm_content=versionA&utm_campaign=Acquisition

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Testing

Email data in Google Analytics

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Email Marketing

Resources– Sender Reputation:

• https://www.senderscore.org/

– Major Spammers• http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/

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Questions/Break

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MEASUREMENT

Part 2

121


Measurement

How can I measure all this improved traffic? – You’ve already:

• Created tracking links to identify visits, etc. from campaigns• Linked Adwords to Analytics

– Up Next:• Setting up Goals & Funnels• Use GWO to optimize landing pages• Segment Traffic• Track Events• Customize Your Dashboards

122


Goals & Goal Funnels

What is the value of my Website?

Goals can:• Determine where visitors drop off on your site• Help you establish value for actions taken on your website• Allow you to report on the performance of each individual

traffic driver to your site• Enable you to report on engagement metrics like time on site

and total page views

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Determine Your Goals Examples of common website goals include:

– Ecommerce Transactions– Completion of a form (lead collection or newsletter opt-ins)– Visitors downloading a whitepaper or product brochure – Visitor engagement (blog comment, adding or editing a profile,

time-on-site, pageviews)

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Goals & Goal Funnels Step 1: Decide What to Measure

Tool Usage

Site RegistrationSweepstakes Entry

Time Spent on Site

Page Views

Product Locator Usage

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Step 2: Map Conversion Process– Determine your path to success; your goal funnel– Make sure that each URL in the funnel is unique

Paid Search AdWe are offering 50% off on our site! Take a look! www.ourcompany.com

Thank you!

126



Step 3: Configure Goals and Funnels

Registration Conversion

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Step 4: See ResultsVisitors entering funnel step Visitors abandoning funnel step

Where did they go?

Where did they go?

Why did they leave?

Why did they leave?

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There is more than one path to success for your website!– You can report on up to 20 specific actions

129


Measurement

Setting up Goals & Funnels Use GWO to optimize landing pages Segment Traffic Track Events Customize Your Dashboards

130


Page Optimization

Now that you’re driving traffic to the site:– How do you increase engagement/activity? – How do you prove your creative recommendation?

A/B & Multivariate testing of your pages

131


Page Optimization

Where do I start? (what pages should I test)– Top Content– Top Landing Pages– First pages in any funnel/goal process

132


Page Optimization

What should I consider?– Pages should be focused on achieving a specific conversion

goal– Traffic to page is controlled

• Typically via lead generation tactics

– Changes to page elements will not effect the entire site– Can live in a subdomain structure

• subdomain.domain.com

133


Page Optimization

What can I test? – Pretty much everything:

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Preferred Tool: Google Website Optimizer– Relatively quick turn around for experiments– User friendly interface

Page Optimization

www.threedeepmarketing.com/kcdma

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Page Optimization

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Make sure the right account is selected from your analytics sites

Page Optimization

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Page Optimization

138


Page Optimization

139

KCDMA 1

KCDMA 2

Thank you Page


Page Optimization

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Page Optimization

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Page Optimization

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Page Optimization

Reports show winning page/combination based on statistical significance

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Page Optimization

Or results that are, as of yet, inconclusive

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Page Optimization

Considerations– DOES NOT typically include major changes to site wide

topology• Navigation• Page layouts

– Lives in the same domain structure• www.domain.com

– The experiment is central to the process• Creative supports the experiment not the other way around

– Should be considered an ongoing process of experiments vs. a single project

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Measurement


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When I look at the reports for my website, the numbers rarely change and I wouldn’t know what to do with it if they did

Step 1 – Create an Advanced Segment

Segment Traffic

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Segment Traffic

Step 2: Enter Segment Criteria

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Segment Traffic

Step 3 - Apply Advanced Segments to Reports– Enable you to provide true insights instead of presenting data– Increase your chances of finding information that will genuinely

impact your business– Allow you to drill down and go three levels deep

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Measurement


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Event Tracking

Event Tracking is used to track events that cannot be tracked by the standard page view method of tracking

Examples of Event Tracking use cases include: – Items within a Flash element – AJAX or JavaScript functionality– PDF or other file downloads

Who interacted with this flash movie?

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Event Tracking

Configuring event tracking will:– Allow you to track events that happen on your site that don’t

generate pageviews, like in Flash movies– Give insight into who left your site to external websites – Allow you to report on downloads of content from your site, like

PDF files– Enable tracking of video views, plays, pauses and more

Comprehensive guide to event tracking: bit.ly/GAEventTracking

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Event Tracking

Step 1: Plan Event Tracking Strategy– Define the events you want to track

• Category: The broad grouping of events of a like nature• Action: the action you want to measure• Label: the specific item tied to the action

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Event Tracking

Step 2: Configure the code– For each event you’d like to track, add the following code:<a href="http://www.facebook.com/threedeepmarketing"

onClick="pageTracker._trackEvent(‘Social Links', 'Click', 'Facebook');">Check us out on Facebook</a>

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Event Tracking

Look at results by:– Category– Action– Label

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Measurement


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Build Custom Dashboards

Customizing your dashboard will:– Provide you a quick

overview of the performance of the metrics most important to your business

– Can provide comparisons to performance in previous days, weeks, months

– Can be emailed to you daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly

– Allows for flexibility as your business grows and changes

Typical Dashboard View

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Step 1: Add Reports to Dashboard– You can add any report or views to your custom dashboard!

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Step 2 (optional): Add extra elements– Compare to PastAdd the “Compare to Past” feature for your

analytics to provide greater depth to your reports– Apply advanced segments– Report on goals or add e-commerce revenue

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Customized Dashboard View

Discover if revenue is

increasing and when orders are most likely to be

placed

Discover if revenue is

increasing and when orders are most likely to be

placed

Compare last month’s analytics with current to determine growth and change

Compare last month’s analytics with current to determine growth and change

See where sales are coming from and how your sales conversions are performing

See where sales are coming from and how your sales conversions are performing

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Step 3: Email Dashboards– Once your dashboard is properly configured, you can share

with members of your organizations by sending the dashboard directly to their inbox

Send as often as needed

Send as often as needed

Send as PDF to Individuals, Other

Formats for automation

Send as PDF to Individuals, Other

Formats for automation

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FINAL QUESTIONS

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Thank You

Darren SelbergThree Deep Marketing180 E. 5th Street, Suite 910 | Saint Paul, MN 55101 [email protected]

Twitter: threedeep Facebook.com/

threedeepmarketingBlog:threedeepmarketing.co

m/madanalyst

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BONUS SECTION

Additional tips & considerations for your reading pleasure

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Thought Leaders to Follow

Matt Cuts Official Google Webmasters Blog searchengineland.com reelseo.com SEOmoz.org Vertical Leap SEO Book Search Engine Journal

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Paid Search 101

How does paid search work? Do I pay for keywords? Clicks? What exactly happens?– Paid search works on an auction based system:

• Paid search bids on keywords entered into the search engine. • Advertisers pay for clicks on the ads that drive to their website.

– When someone searches for that keyword, the ad may show up in any of the sponsored search positions, or sometimes not at all.

Why is my ad not in the #1 position every time I search?– There are many reasons why your ad may not be in the #1

position for a given search result. The most common reasons are • The bid is too low • Poor quality score• Lack of relevancy • The daily budget for clicks has been spent • The position of your ad is dependent on something called Ad Rank.

The Ad Rank formula is defined as:

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Complete formula here: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6111


Paid Search 101

What is Max CPC? – Maximum CPC is simply the maximum amount of money that

you are willing to pay for a click. – There is a difference between your Max CPC and your Actual

CPC, and it is based on your Ad Rank. • AdWords automatically gives you the lowest possible actual cost

per click needed to maintain your ad’s position.

How many keywords should we be bidding on?– This number will vary depending on the scope of your

campaigns. – Generally, the more keywords you bid on, the more

segmented your campaigns will be and the lower your cost per click.

• This is due to segmentation lowering cost per click due to increased relevancy of ads.

– We recommend starting with a manageable list of keywords and then expanding the list after looking at reports of who actually converted on each keyword.

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Paid Search 101 What is a conversion?

– A conversion occurs any time a visitors takes a favorable action on your website.

• Coupon prints• Registrations• Store locator usage• Time on site• Pageviews and more

Why don’t I see my ads when I search for X keyword?– There may be several reasons, including:

• The daily budget limit has been reached and ads will not display until it refreshes the next day

• Campaigns may not be currently are bidding on this keyword• The keyword may have been paused due to poor performance• The keyword may have a low quality score that prevents them from being displayed

How do I create ads? How big should they be?– Ads are generally created by your search agency after interviewing your team to

understand your objectives. Ad formats are defined as follows:• Headline: 25 Characters Max• Description Line 1: 35 Characters Max• Description Line 2: 35 Characters Max• Destination URL: 35 Characters Max Key

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Paid Search 101

What is the best way to handle Trademarks in my ads?– Adding trademarks in ads may be necessary to maintain brand

integrity and at times can increase CTR on ads. Other times, they cause us to go over character limits in our ads, lower relevancy and lower click thru rates.

– The best way to test how trademarks affect brands would be to test ads with trademarks vs. ads without them (if this is allowed) and then use the best performing ad for future campaigns.

How much should I budget for my campaigns?– Budgeting campaigns will generally come down to your

objectives and the size of the market being targeted. Most search engines have poor tools for projecting how much can be spent in advertising, so we recommend starting with a small campaign that can run for 15-30 days and then basing the future budget on the results from this test. This allows for accurate projections, and also helps the account establish quality scores with the search engines.

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Should I manage my own Paid Search

Use an outside resource

Shared Leanings – One view of enterprise Performance

Improved Projections

No Cannibalization

Lowered and Optimized Spend

Experienced and Dedicated Team

Fast Turnaround

Innovative Ideas and Techniques

Best Practices Implementation

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Internal Management

Gain experience in-house

No intermediaries

Appropriate for small campaigns with a very limited keyword list or when the products or services are available in a very limited geographical area


Further Customization of Google Analytics

Filter out internal traffic/unwanted IPs Create page names that are readily identifiable in reports

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Filter Internal Traffic

Is this really an accurate visitor count?– Problem: Everybody in our company uses our corporate

website as their homepage and I’m not sure if our traffic reports are accurate

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Step 1: Find your IP address– Whatismyip.com

Step 2: Filter out IP address

86.75.30.909

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CompanyNo-Block.comCompany-Block.com

Choose the profile you want this filter for

Company-block.com

Step 2: Filter out IP address

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See exactly who visited your site Make reporting more actionable by showing a true picture

of what happened on your site Bring the best metrics to the forefront and keep reporting

on track

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Create User Friendly Page Names

Problem: Dynamic URLs don’t make any sense when they show up in my Analytics reports and it makes it really hard to do – These all look the same, I have no idea which page is which?

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Your Site should have a URL structure that reflects the pages, not query string ID's

– www.example.com/Products/Product.aspx?ProductId=46116ccf-816b-4c09-a7e0-1b3oc1aech

– www.example.com /Total-Stage/Preschooler/Education-Materials.aspx

Which is easier to read? Which URL would be easier to identify in Google Analytics?

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There are many ways to fix your URLs– Change URL structure in your CMS– Custom Page Names (using pageTracker._trackPageview(“fixed

url"); )– Friendly URL rewrites (.htaccess for Linux servers, IIS for

Windows servers)

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I know exactly which page I am analyzing now

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Making your URLs easy to read will:– Make page level analysis much easier and effective– Help with Organic SEO (search engines don’t like to read

dynamic URLs either!)– Minimize opportunity for errors in analysis– Allow for better grouping of pages in custom reporting

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Documents

Online Marketing Best Practices