Fresh from the wire comes the news that IBM have announced the takeover of Web Analytics powerhouse Coremetrics. Coremetrics, a leading organisation in the marketing optimisation field, produced the Coremetrics Continuous Optimization Platform, their own analytics and optimisation software.
That IBM could see the worth of buying Coremetrics is no surprise. Web analytics – especially when it’s combined with the kind of aggressive optimisation espoused by Coremetrics – offers genuine and tangible ROI. More than just technical feedback, it also provides insight into visitor behaviour that can bolster knowledge of target demographics and open up new routes to selling. The IBM press release announcing the acquisition of Coremetrics contains this telling little stat:
“IBM’s 2010 CEO Study showed that 88 percent of CEOs will focus on getting closer to their customers in next five years, 82 percent of CEOs want to better understand customer needs and 85 percent of CEOs require more visibility into their businesses.”
That’s just some of the kind of data that Web Analytics can provide. Joe Davis, CEO of Coremetrics, further backs this up: “Marketers increasingly need the ability to see across their organizations and the agility to make split-second decisions based on real-time data.” This is as true for IBM/Coremetric’s giant clients as it is for North West based SEMS and Start-ups. The future of online marketing is intertwined with the future of Analytical measurement and analysis.
June 15th, 2010 - No Comments »
Posted in Website Analytics | Tags: coremetrics, IBM, news, optimisation, roi, web analytics
“Content Strategy”… Two words that are thrown around a lot at the moment. We’re big fans.
The need for content strategy comes from the changing ways in which people use the web. Visitors have come to expect more from your website than a simple storefront. Which means you need to be providing content that’ll engage and inform your visitors, at the same time as being as SEO friendly as possible.
It’s time to think about quality and quantity. Regularly updated content featuring relevant information as well as relevant keywords; that’s what’s going to win you links, retain visitors, drive conversions and get return on your investment. Tailoring content for the “long-tail” keywords and phrases that reflect the language your customers use allows you to engage them in a dialogue; you’re capturing them early in their buying cycle and building your brand at the same time.
Keep supplying that kind of content and not only are you more likely to get conversions from existing visitors, you’ll also increase your search engine ranking. That’ll bring more people to your site, who’ll engage with that content and pay you back in more links and more conversions.
Content strategy and SEO are a long-term investment; dedicate enough time to them and it should result in you being able to reassess your PPC campaigns and redistribute your advertising spend. Early content strategy and SEO work can be balanced by driving traffic with PPC. The quality content on your website will persuade visitors captured via PPC towards conversion, whilst simultaneously increasing your search engine listings.
Targeting and capitalising on exact term matches with PPC whilst optimising for broader terms in your content helps you to avoid common difficulties with on-page keyword density, and makes your content more readable. The quantifiable nature of PPC traffic, plus the amount of user experience data available through Web Analytics, can be used to tweak your content strategy; it’s all work towards the same goal, conversions and listings.
A well thought through content strategy, combined with a similarly targeted PPC campaign and supported by insightful Web Analytics is a pretty dangerous combination. By employing a content strategy you’ll generate awareness by upping your profile, actively bring in more customers at an earlier stage in their buying cycle, and optimise your website for product categories and keywords. And here’s the kicker: however your visitors get to your website, whether through PPC or natural search, high quality content is persuasive content.
Simultaneously optimising your website for the search engines, improving your visitors’ user experience, and managing your brand? Not to be sniffed at.
April 26th, 2010 - No Comments »
Posted in Search Engine Optimisation | Tags: content strategy, copywriting, ppc, roi, seo
Bid Management Software is a tool used by many PPC Managers to automatically manage a campaign for a number of important aspects of campaigns including Cost Per Click and ad positioning. Bid Management Software general combines the information from the analytics of a website and the data from a PPC campaign. It takes this information and looks at each key phrase and the performance on it when using a certain ad, when positioned in a certain level in the sponsored links and sometimes when people land on different pages within the site. The software then makes a decision on what position and ad should be displayed at and the cost per click for key phrases which had a high success rate. This allows for the budget of particular key phrases which are under performing to be pushed into phrases which are bring better ROI.
In general managing a Pay Per Click Campaign is to better ROI and on a manual basis it is also possible to reduce the cost per click based on performance although it requires many more man hours but in many cases this way is much more accurate and allows for a better long term understanding on the campaign and the direction for better ROI.
Here are some advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
• Decrease the time required to manage a campaign on as it does not require as much intense monitor to a key phrase level
• Make better use of budgets for certain key phrases
• Advanced positioning for improved Click Through rates
• Reduced management time for large campaigns
• Possible increase in ROI
Disadvantages
• No way to manage landing pages correctly
• Use of brand building key phrases will have reduced Costs and lower Click throughs as the conversion rates are no usually as high
• No way to deal with first visitors
• No way to deal with seasonal changes
• Still requires intense management
How could they be improved?
Using a Automated Bid Management tool in many ways can benefit a Pay Per click campaign but still requires intense monitoring. As the tools further advance to allow for times of day tracking and landing page analysis with the process become even more advanced. Google’s huge collection of tools such as the conversion Optimizer and Web Optimizer working together may be able to help with this and both are free, but it is almost impossible to deal with important human edited areas such as first time visitors key phrases, branding key phrases and the intelligent behind landing pages and website usability at a key phrase level.
Overall the use of automated bid management tools can help on large low cost per click campaigns but campaigns which require intense monitoring to improve conversions it well always be better to use automated systems as a backup to intense human management.
October 3rd, 2008 - No Comments »
Posted in PPC Management | Tags: adwords, bid management, ppc, roi
When it comes to managing a PPC campaign there are a number of important tasks which are crucial to ensure that your campaign is earning the best ROI possible. Monitoring a PPC campaign using basic analytics will provide you with details for your campaign but collecting the right data and feeding back into the campaign is the most important role.
Website analytics is the process monitoring and interpreting the interaction with users with a website. Analytics can track every movement a user makes on page and where they come from. This is crucial in PPC Management as knowing what people clicked on and what they did on the site will allow you to make informative decisions on how to bid on particular key phrases.
Analytics is the beginning of a PPC Management, taking the information from the analytics it is possible to make usability decisions on the website. This may include removing bottle necks in the purchase funnel or reducing the bounce rate on landing pages.
Monitoring analytics with your PPC campaign can make the difference to those clicks that not provide a return. Taking the data and turning it into information that can be used to make decision about your website to increase conversion rates and ROI is how you can manage your PPC campaign the best.
When it comes to managing a PPC campaign there are a number of important tasks which are crucial to ensure that your campaign is earning the best ROI possible. Monitoring a PPC campaign using basic analytics will provide you with details for your campaign but collecting the right data and feeding back into the campaign is the most important role.
Website analytics is the process monitoring and interpreting the interaction with users with a website. Analytics can track every movement a user makes on page and where they come from. This is crucial in PPC Management as knowing what people clicked on and what they did on the site will allow you to make informative decisions on how to bid on particular key phrases.
Analytics is the beginning of a PPC Management, taking the information from the analytics it is possible to make usability decisions on the website. This may include removing bottle necks in the purchase funnel or reducing the bounce rate on landing pages.
Monitoring analytics with your PPC campaign can make the difference to those clicks that not provide a return. Taking the data and turning it into information that can be used to make decision about your website to increase conversion rates and ROI is how you can manage your PPC campaign the best.
October 24th, 2007 - No Comments »
Posted in PPC Management | Tags: ppc, PPC Management, roi, web analytics
As you are reading this blog, I can safely assume you have an active interest in marketing and more specifically internet marketing. If you are currently utilising some form of internet marketing or are considering the benefits there is one really important aspect that you should understand and undertake – analytics.
Due to the internet being digital and computerised, internet traffic flow is logged automatically, online marketing is therefore one of the most tangible advertising methods. It only becomes tangible however when you utilise website analytics for both analysis and reporting. Website analytics can provides very high levels of accuracy on the successes or failures of your online marketing campaigns. Using visitor segmentation you can split your visitors into many areas, usually unique to your specific marketing campaigns, the five main traffic sources being:
• Direct – Visitors entering your URL in the address bar.
• Referral – Visitors who came from an external website, not search engines.
• Natural Search – Visitors from natural search engine listings.
• Paid Search – Visitors from sponsored search engine listings.
• Paid Referral – Visitors from sites that you pay for a click through, i.e. as price comparison sites.
Once you have the basic segmentation you are then able to segment further to investigate in greater detail and with the appropriate tracking parameters, monitor and obtain accurate feedback on each of your individual online marketing campaigns. This is essential for you to ensure that you are not only maximising opportunity, but are also receiving good return on your investment.
Once armed with the relevant segmentation and KPI information you are able to make informed and managed decisions about budget allocation and future spend in direct correlation to your actual Return on Investment.
October 13th, 2007 - No Comments »
Posted in Website Analytics | Tags: roi, segmentation, web analytics
