Optimize & Prophesize

Category: Search

  • Real Behavioral Targeting Focuses on Intent

    Dave Morgan of Tacoda has an insightful essay “When Will We Deliver the Promise” that addresses a question asked to him by WSJ technology writer Walter Mossberg: when will online advertising deliver on the promise of right ad, right, customer, right time? The question is great one. However, I’m afraid the folks in display media…

  • ROI Factors of Brand Keywords: Paid vs. Organic

    Part 2 of 3 In part 1 I discussed the thinking and strategy behind running tests on whether it was worth it for our client to have ads running on their brand keywords, especially in light of the recent Google changes to the result presentation. Would these clicks just end up going to the natural…

  • Do I Purchase My Brand Keywords or Has Google Improved So Much I Don’t Need To?

    Part 1 of 3 Recently Google has changed the way search results on brand queries appear for many businesses. They have provided them with added real estate at the top of the SERP by listing four links to internal sections below the main result and description (interestingly it seems for everyone but Amazon & their…

  • Lead with Landing Pages: Create Your Campaigns by Starting at the End

    Why do keywords and ads inform landing page creative? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? This is a vestige of the old way of thinking about advertising. The ad was everything. The ad could persuade. The ad could influence. The ad could brand. Those days are a nice walk down memory lane. Still, most…

  • YouTube Video Ad Optimization: Send in the SEMs!

    Ok, I know YouTube hasn’t officially started running video ads but they are testing. So it’s time to start thinking about how to optimize them. Well, maybe not so fast. The video ad production, media buying, results analysis and optimization will likely be done by folks that have little experience purchasing media based on user…

  • Google’s Use of Conversion Rates for Quality Score

    Bill Slawski at SEO by the Sea provides a fascinating look at a recent Google patent application on ROI & Quality Score determination. In the application Google provides information and<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bragadocchio/340096133/”> a flow chart that makes clear the invention titled “Adjusting Ad Costs Using Document Performance or Document Collection Performance” factors quality score determination differently…

  • Dawn of the Video Search (& Ad) Age

    Quietly, as if it occurred while you were sleeping over the past few years search relevancy has improved. The combination of increased algorithmic accuracy plus an abundance of additional data and content have made this possible. Long gone are the days you could and would go from engine to engine and try your query in…

  • Afterthoughts on SES Chicago

    SES Chicago had a very different vibe from the six other SES shows I’ve participated in. The show was packed with first time attendees and lots of in-house folks. I actually think this is a really good sign. SEO/M has reached a turning point. On one level it has matured. Early practitioners now have years…

  • How Simplicity, Recognition & “The Perception of Ease” Impact Landing Page Optimization

    If there’s one landing page battle I’ve had to fight consistently with clients during my time as a strategist and consultant it is the fight for simplicity. Why don’t people like simplicity on landing pages? Here’s just a few snippets of what I’ve heard over the years: “It makes us look unprofessional” “It doesn’t represent…

  • User Goals and Conversion from Search

    Understanding user goals forms the foundation of my methodology for landing page and search ad optimization. Goal discovery also forms the core of searcher behavior research. This is all due to the fact that delivering relevance can only be done by first understanding the goals of users. Through my experience, research and user observation I’ve…

  • Marketing Speak

    I’ve been doing plenty of talking the past couple of weeks and I’ve been repeating a number of ideas. Forsaking humility, I thought that sharing what’s on my mind might make an interesting post. In no particular order: Contextual Relevance: Deliver relevance in the context of the user focus Sub-segments: Segmentation…at a whole other level…

  • What Google’s Quality Score Is & What It Is Not

    Over the past few months at OTTO Digital we have done a series of search ad optimizations for Google advertisers using multivariate content delivery to optimize ad titles, descriptions and visible URLs based on landing page engagement and conversion rate. In addition to improving client ROI we’ve been provided a fascinating look at the effectiveness,…

  • Why (Insert Your Brand or Product Here)?

    True story. I’m on the subway heading downtown in NYC. I notice an ad for Fiji Water. It was a picture of the bottle and this copy: Message In A Bottle FIJI water is from Fiji What caught my interest most of all was the question “WHY?” handwritten in black pen next to the bottom…

  • Yahoo Crosses Over with Panama

    Last week’s pre-release of Yahoo Search Marketing’s highly anticipated and much needed “Project Panama” means that after a couple of years as a second thought, Yahoo will have to be taken seriously again as a search-marketing channel. Ideally, Panama will be more stable than Yahoo/Overture, which routinely plagues advertisers with data issues. The big win…

  • Google’s Website Optimizer: Optimization for the Masses

    I’ve been receiving lots of calls the past 24 hours about Google’s “release” of their multivariate testing tool called Google Website Optimizer. Here are my thoughts: • Since you need to have Google Analytics to use the tool this immediately places the tool as a small to mid-market product. I’ve spoken about analytic platforms with…

  • Optimizing Your Content Pages

    https://s3.amazonaws.com:443/slideshare/ssplayer.swf?id=3622&doc=omma-new-york-when-every-page-is-a-landing-page-14215 This past week at OMMA New York I spoke to content providers. The session was titled “When Every Page is a Landing Page.” This indeed is the case and exemplifies the power of digital marketing (namely search) to deconstruct traditional forms of media and the long held practices around them. The idea of presenting…

  • Landing Page Optimization Part 2: Search Ads

    Marketers optimizing landing pages often neglect to look at a key element in that optimization equation. The ad. The Reason: Testing results recently showed a 61% impact on conversion rate In Google for a particular ad with the first description line having the greatest impact on that performance. Display ads are being tested as well.…

  • Delivering Contextual Relevance Through Segmentation

    Mass marketing in the digital age means marketing to many segments of the entire mass. In fact, we all know the very idea of “mass marketing” is road kill. Technology allows us as marketers to understand the individual segments of our audience and deliver messages contextually relevant to each segment. In fact, segmentation is the…

  • Rocket Up Your ROI with Contextual Relevance

    Once you figure out how to deliver relevance to one of your key market segments I guarantee you’ll want to try again. And when you try it again you’ll wonder why you didn’t try it sooner. From beyond the universe to the planet OTTO, I present the ASTRO rules for delivering contextual relevance. 1. Analyze-Numbers…

  • Landing Page Optimization Part 1 (cont.)

    The Keyword Query and Transactional Landing Pages Picking up where we left off in Part 1 we’re now heading downstream and focusing on experiences where the user lands closer to completing their goal. I refer to these as Transactional Landings. Here the keyword driver can be anything from a general query like “mortgage” to a…