Enterprise SEM is written by search marketers running massive search advertising campaigns. Running large budget campaigns with millions of keywords can be an entirely different animal than running less complex ad campaigns. Additional details, such as more complex ROI metrics, optimizing efficiently, managing creatives and automation become the focus of such campaigns. Experts share real-life experience and perspective to running search campaigns of such scale.

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January Survival Tips For Search Marketers: Revisit Your Budget, Rest Up – The Superbowl Is Coming

Jan 3, 2013 at 11:43am ET by Siddharth Shah

The beginning of the new year is usually a very busy time for marketers. Not only do they have to execute on their new goals and budgets, but they also have to deal with seasonal factors that affect many verticals. While search marketers in particular have to overcome several tactical and strategic issues in January to ensure success; this January, I see three key areas where search marketers would be well advised to focus their energies. Adjusting To Rapid Changes In Traffic Patterns For most businesses, the period between December 25 and January 1 is a quiet period when traffic dies dow [...]

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7 Optimization Strategies For A Limited Daily Search Budget

Dec 20, 2012 at 12:12pm ET by Matt Lawson

No matter what level your paid search program is operating at, whether small business or enterprise, inevitably some campaigns will outgrow the daily budgets that were set to sustain them. Aggressive keyword expansion or increasing CPCs due to competition could be two contributing factors. Until these budgets can be expanded, your campaigns will be limited. Optimizing a campaign that’s limited by budget is one of the toughest tasks for a search marketer. A limited budget not only eliminates opportunities to expand on keywords and campaigns, but can hinder the execution of other crucial [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM | How To | How To: SEM | Intermediate

3 Top Line Search Marketing Resolutions For 2013

Dec 13, 2012 at 1:28pm ET by George Michie

The beauty of working in the digital marketing industry is that it is difficult to get bored. There is a new advertising option available every week, it seems, a new Google algorithm update, a new targeting option, and a new rocket ship social media platform clamoring for attention. The demands on the online marketing director’s time have never been greater or more fractured, and it only gets worse from here. The greater the array of programs to manage, the more essential it becomes to prioritize. There is a natural human tendency to focus attention on the newest, shiniest object in th [...]

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Why Attribution Really Matters For Product Listing Ads

Nov 29, 2012 at 12:11pm ET by Siddharth Shah

With the holiday shopping season in full steam, advertisers are continuing to invest significantly in Google Shopping via Product Listing Ad (PLA) campaigns. Given the different format of these ads, one might expect users to interact differently than regular search ads. Perhaps people interact with them earlier in the sales funnel because these ads have images. If so, do they assist regular search ads? Further, do they contribute substantially to a search marketers campaign in terms of both volume and ROI? I analyzed several PLA campaigns and found that advertisers would do well to measu [...]

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6 Holiday Trend Shifts That Heavily Impact SEM

Nov 15, 2012 at 1:25pm ET by Mark Ballard

Anyone involved with online retail should be well aware of just how critical holiday revenues are, not only to a strong fourth quarter, but to our success for the entire year. An RKG analysis of 2011 paid-search results shows that, on average, retailers generated 18% of their annual revenues over the 30 day period starting with Thanksgiving Day, with daily sales volume coming in at nearly triple the rate of the rest of the year. But, revenue volume isn't the only metric that shifts significantly during the holiday season, and as we'll see below, the assumptions and strategies that serve us [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM | Stats: Search Behavior

3 Mobile Trends Every Search Marketer Must Know

Nov 8, 2012 at 12:59pm ET by Siddharth Shah

When I last blogged about mobile trends in 2011, I had predicted that mobile, i.e., smartphone + tablet traffic would be 10% of all paid search traffic by the end of 2011. I had also predicted that mobile traffic would be between 16-22% of all traffic. It turns out, at least for a few categories, that I had under-predicted the rise of mobile. An analysis of mobile traffic of a cross section of advertisers reveals up to 25-30% of all paid search traffic is now mobile. It is now more important than ever before to pay attention to your mobile targeted search campaigns. In this post, I shall ta [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM | Search Marketing: Mobile

What’s The Next Big Metric For Creative Optimization?

Nov 1, 2012 at 1:35pm ET by Matt Lawson

As keyword lists expand, they often outgrow the groups that were initially created to contain them. For example, a group that started out with a single keyword, [running shoes], could expand over time to contain [running shoes], [womens running shoes], [jogging shoes] and [black running shoes], among others. The original creative that was generated to match [running shoes] queries would be less relevant to the newly expanded keywords and, as a result, the overall click-through rate (CTR) of this group would decline. This decline in group CTR, as keyword count increases, exposes a useful [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM

Why Changed Goals Require Changed Metrics

Oct 18, 2012 at 9:49am ET by George Michie

Enterprise businesses demand savvy communication from SEM managers. It is the nature of large organizations to have the following: Senior executives reviewing data from programs they don't understand A shortage of institutional memory Consultants coming and going who offer opinions based on superficial data Each of these traits make performance reporting particularly important, and sometimes challenging, for paid search. These challenges are often most keenly felt when the enterprise decides to make significant changes to the goals of the program. Any well-managed paid search pro [...]

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How To Effectively Use Attribution With Complex Campaigns

Oct 11, 2012 at 2:40pm ET by Siddharth Shah

As marketers, we think that attribution is important. However, despite all the talk in white papers, blogs, etc., little has been discussed about its effective use. For instance: is attribution always useful, what are the common attribution techniques, which is the best attribution model, what improvements in efficiency can one expect from the right attribution techniques? In this column, I shall attempt to answer some of these pressing questions. Question 1: When To Invest In Attribution? Many advertisers want to investigate cross-channel effects with multi-channel attribution. However, [...]

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5 SEM Tips For A Successful 2012 Holiday Season

Oct 4, 2012 at 1:35pm ET by Matt Lawson

The holiday shopping season has always been the most profitable time of the year for online retailers. Search, display, social and mobile have shown tremendous growth year over year and continue to be vital programs for acquiring more revenue during the holidays. Online marketers going into the 2012 holiday season should have a plan for success, but maintain the ability to stay flexible in the face of changing conditions. To help prioritize paid search strategies for the upcoming season, we evaluated five best practices across Marin’s client base and highlighted them below: 1. Prepare [...]

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Is It Time To Revisit Your PPC Strategy For Tablets?

Sep 20, 2012 at 9:30am ET by Mark Ballard

Going by the last couple of months, the humble tablet computer is playing an increasingly pivotal role in the strategic plans of many of the biggest names in tech, and it will continue to hold greater significance to paid search advertisers as we move toward the holiday season. Following the March release of the new iPad, the tablet market enjoyed a few months of relative calm before the heavy hitters began rolling out a new wave of devices that they hope will finally make serious gains against Apple's dominance in the space. In mid-June, Microsoft announced it would co-opt its own Surfa [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM | Google: Mobile

A 3 Step Model For High Seasonality Forecasting

Sep 13, 2012 at 12:08pm ET by Siddharth Shah

In many verticals, much of the year’s business gets done during a short period. For instance, tax software is mostly sold at the end of January in the US when the W2 forms are mailed and right before the last day of submission in mid April. This is seen clearly in the Google Trends chart for the query: Impression Trends for "tax software". Note the sharp peaks at the end of January when W2 forms arrive and the day before tax day (mid April For a SEM campaign manager, this situation is a mixed blessing. On the positive side, one knows which times of the year are important [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM

What You Need To Know For Competitive Keyword Analysis

Sep 6, 2012 at 10:37am ET by Matt Lawson

Competitive keyword analysis should play in integral part in your paid and organic search optimization strategy. As paid search activity continues to grow, so will the number of businesses you compete against within the search battlefield. Understanding who your competitors are and the keywords they’re optimizing for is critical to staying relevant, competitive and profitable in your pursuit to acquire more revenue. In this article, I’ll be walking through several advanced tips for conducting competitive keyword analysis and how to apply your findings to your own optimization strategies [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM

3 Ways Time Can Warp Your View

Aug 23, 2012 at 9:13am ET by George Michie

The time delay between marketing exposure and marketing success creates tremendous opportunity for consternation for all paid search managers, but particularly for enterprise programs. Let's look at three ways that time can distort one's perspective, and consider a solution that can be helpful. In most paid search reporting platforms, the default setting (often the only setting) creates a disconnect between conversion events and the marketing touches that drove them. Impressions, clicks, costs are tied to the day on which they occurred. Conversion events are tied to the day on which they [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM

Creative Testing For The Advanced Search Marketer, Part 3

Aug 2, 2012 at 9:22am ET by Matt Lawson

For paid search programs, big and small, creative optimization remains one of the single most impactful strategies for increasing traffic, lowering costs and acquiring more revenue. Continuously generating, analyzing and iterating on new creative delivers incremental improvements in keyword-to-creative relevancy. Increasing relevancy results in higher click-through-rates (CTR) and Quality Score, and as a result, lower costs. Furthermore, testing helps marketers discover more compelling creative messaging to increase visitor engagement with the conversion funnel after the click, promoting hi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM

A Beyond Average Look At Search Ad Position

Jul 26, 2012 at 12:08pm ET by Mark Ballard

Among the scores of data points search marketers have at their disposal, perhaps no other metric is as shrouded by mythology and misconception as ad position. Despite careful studies showing, including one by RKG in 2006, and confirmation by Google in 2009 that conversion performance doesn't vary much by position, you will still hear pronouncements, even among enterprise level practitioners, that some specific position on the page generates exceptional performance. This piece is not meant to rehash that argument, per se. Instead, we'll examine how attributes of the current ad auction in [...]

Singular vs. Plural: What Search Queries Can Tell You About Your Customers

Jul 19, 2012 at 11:49am ET by Siddharth Shah

"Remember: Y'all is singular. All y'all is plural. All y'all's is plural possessive." – Kinky Friedman In display or social advertising, the marketer can reach customers with different offers based on demographics or behavioral signals. This is not so in search where one only has the query searched as the fundamental mode of segmentation. This is rather limited as many different types of customers often search with a similar query. For instance: someone searching with the term "shoes" might be a bargain hunter or a high value customer. Hence, for the most part we can only create [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM

Creative Testing For The Advanced Search Marketer – Part 2

Jul 12, 2012 at 12:50pm ET by Matt Lawson

In a search landscape where millions of keywords define intent, generating the most compelling creative can prove to be a daunting task. Understanding your audience and formulating a message might be easy, but packaging up that message within the narrow limits of a 130 character creative can be a challenge. For paid search programs, for enterprise (as well as smaller) accounts, creative optimization remains one of the single most impactful strategies for increasing traffic, lowering costs and acquiring more revenue. To optimize creative, search marketers rely on testing. Continuously ge [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM

Why You’re Paying More For Your Brand Terms On Yahoo

Jun 28, 2012 at 9:15am ET by Mark Ballard

Yahoo has suffered through its fair share of turmoil over the last few years: a revolving door of CEOs, significant layoffs, investor revolts, and a declining share of the search space, both paid and organic. One recent bright spot for Yahoo was their first year over year growth in search revenues after traffic acquisition costs (ex-TAC) since their alliance with Microsoft in the fourth quarter of 2010. In fact, before last quarter, Yahoo hadn't shown Y/Y growth in search revenue ex-TAC since they began reporting it in 2009. Not too shabby then, and Yahoo's results were generally well [...]

Sometimes You Just Need To Go With Your Gut In Data Analysis

Jun 21, 2012 at 12:52pm ET by Siddharth Shah

It is difficult to understand why statisticians commonly limit their inquiries to Averages, and do not revel in more comprehensive views. Their souls seem as dull to the charm of variety as that of the native of one of our flat English counties, whose retrospect of Switzerland was that, if its mountains could be thrown into its lakes, two nuisances would be got rid of at once. An Average is but a solitary fact, whereas if a single other fact be added to it, an entire Normal Scheme, which nearly corresponds to the observed one, starts potentially into existence. Some people hate the very na [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM

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