March 11, 2010

Nothing Wrong With an Old Marketing Model-That Actually Works

6:23 PM | Posted by Benin | Edit Post
Web App Conversion FunnelImage by Maqroll via Flickr
There's nothing wrong at all with something that works. And whether we're talking sales, SEO, or just plain marketing AIDAS is clearly an effective mechanism for moving users from top or the wide end of the funnel to the bottom.  Here's Joel Cudmore's take on the topic.

From SEO.com:

"So how do you convert visitors into customers? Make use of the AIDAS formula. There is nothing revolutionary about this age-old idea (it was conceived by psychologist E.K. Strong way back in 1925). There’s a reason it’s still around – because it works."
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March 3, 2010

SEO: Google AdWords Quality Score-Critical or Hype?

5:15 PM | Posted by Benin | Edit Post

Here is something that I've always been curious about-AdWords Quality Scores. For anyone else whose ever wondered here's a great explanation from Search Engine Land on how your AdWords Quality Score can affect your PPC campaigns and how they are calculated. Its a much simpler calculation than one might expect.

Search Engine Land on the AdWords Quality Score:

"...just how important is Quality Score, and how significantly should it factor into the way PPC campaigns are managed?
It turns out Quality Score actually is a big deal, one that you ignore at your own risk and expense.

The reason boils down to its inclusion in two formulas that Google uses to determine where (and if) your ads appear and how much you pay for clicks.

So if your keyword earns a Quality Score of 20 and your nearest competitor earns only a Quality Score of 10 for that same keyword, your $2 Max CPC will earn you a higher Ad Rank (and display position) than your competitor’s $3 MaxCPC. Your Ad Rank = 40 (20 x 2) while their Ad Rank = 30 (10 x 3)..."
And in case you're wondering-the quality score is driven by the ad's click through rate (CTR)-the better your CTR then the better your quality score and vice versa. The significance of this is that if your PPC ads are designed so that there's so much info on them that the users don't need to click them then, yes, your PPC budget will be minimized but your Quality Score will suffer and your ads will be given less prominence on search or content ad placements.

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February 28, 2010

Revisiting Always On

1:03 PM | Posted by Benin | Edit Post
D-Wave presentation: market segmentsImage by david.orban via Flickr
The other day I talked a bit about the high caliber of Vollmer's writing, "Always On". What I did not have an opportunity to mention at that time is that no sooner than finishing up the book I spotted two examples of brands incorporating strategies long commonplace only within the digital marketing space and applying them to TV ads.

Here are the concepts:

  • Relevance and not just reach will rule the day in the marketing of tomorrow
  • Although its great for brands to understand their audience's demographic segments, it is far better for brands to apply psychographic segmenting that speaks to user intent to their campaigns
Now for the examples. I was watching the NAACP Image Awards the other night and saw two ads that really caught my eye.

The first belonged to American Family Insurance and was a TV commercial that spoke to both a demographic segment (the 40 something age group) and that group's psychographic segment (the values of that age group). The result was an ad that stood out to me and I'm willing to bet that it probably has a very high recall rate since it comes across as so genuine (relevant ads always seem genuine).




The second ad was an auto manufacturer's ad who, forgive me I don't recall which one but the ad also came on during one of the breaks during the NAACP Image Awards, just before the commercial ended spoke directly to consumers/buyers in Atlanta by saying something like, " we are offering our customers in Atlanta...". They must have done this for each major market across the country. And again although geographic targeting is common online (many online marketing professionals use it because of the increased relevance derived from speaking to someone about an offer in their near vicinity), it is difficult for me to recall other TV campaigns from national or international brands that use the tactic.

On a side note, I'd be interested in hearing about the experiences of marketers who used the methodologies discussed in Always On to combine below the line marketing efforts with online marketing efforts...

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