five steps to maximize your search marketing roi

www.searchmetrics.com Whitepaper “Five Steps to maximize your search marketing ROI “ | © Searchmetrics 2013 1

Whitepaper

Five Steps to maximize your search marketing ROIWhat businesses and agencies can do to increase their search market value

www.searchmetrics.com

http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/

http://www.searchmetrics.com


Table of contents

Introduction 3Step 1: Understanding your search market 5 Step 2: Finding hidden potentials 11 Step 3: Finding better keywords and being more relevant 13 Step 4: Integrating search and social marketing strategies 14 Step 5: Going the distance 16 The Bottom-Line 17


The mind of your consumer, how they search for you

Timothy replies when asked what he wants for his birthday, “An iPad or a tablet, a pair of Ni-ke’s and the new Call of Duty!”. His mother has already purchased the Nike’s, but still wants to buy him the tablet and video game. It is a big birthday, but his mother can not afford to buy him everything. She begins to do some research on getting the best for her money. Her first stop, her most trusted search engine. She begins to search for “iPad” and is directed to some paid search (PPC) results on the top and to the right, shopping results, the apple store, some news results, blogs and a few large online retailers. Will your company’s site be her next stop?

1 This information is based on Gartner’s Key Findings from U.S. Digital Marketing Spending Survey, 2013 published on 6 March 2013 on gartner.com

Introduction

Moving away from the known silos of search marketing, Searchmetrics introduces One-Search: the future of search marketing intelligence. This White Paper will demonstrate how Searchmetrics technology can bring your search marketing strategies to the next level. Especially, when envisioning a parent looking to give their child everything they want for their birthday or a potential consumer you are trying to reach, what online marketing strate-gies does your business have in place to reach them? And are these strategies equipped to provide your business with an ROI and the longevity needed to survive?

With everything just one search away, companies are fighting for the best digital real estate and spending big to reach their audience like Timothy’s mom. A recent study published on the findings from a digital marketing spending survey by Gartner shows that marketers will allocate 70% of their digital marketing budgets to search marketing (including Paid), cont-ent marketing, site maintenance, analytics and social marketing.1

http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/digital-marketing/digital-marketing-spend-report.jsp






With a majority of the digital marketing budget focused around search engine marketing, marketers and SEO professionals maybe unaware of how to spend wisely for the best results. Many will miss traffic and revenue opportunities if they do not arm themselves with the right tools to boost their search marketing efforts.

In this white paper, Searchmetrics demonstrates how to maximize your search marketing ROI through five seemingly easy steps: Who are my organic competitors? How to leverage a database and analytics to find hidden potentials? Why testing campaigns can help you dig deeper? And how to combine PPC, SEO and social effectively?

The purpose of this paper is to arm you with meaningful digital business intelligence. To make you a savvy digital marketer we explore how to understand your search market, iden-tify your competitors, find keywords and combine your search and social strategies - with the unique insights only Searchmetrics can provide. These five steps will help your business see long-term digital success.

Source: Gartner’s Key Findings from U.S. Digital Marketing Spending Survey, 2013 published on 6 March 2013 on gartner.com

Chart 1


Step 1: Understanding your search market

For many businesses the Internet can seem vast and overwhelming, but spending money to improve your site and business‘ SEO visibility is key. While some companies are spending only 2.5% of their budgets on digital marketing, others are spending more than half of their marketing budgets on digital2. In order for companies to spend effectively, whether they are just starting out or are already spending big, they need to understand their market space.

Where are you in the search engines?

As a company your image and messaging is most likely already established. You know what you are selling and whom your messaging is targeted for. Essentially, the core of your foun-dation is set and the purpose of your marketing efforts is to promote these initiatives across multiple channels.

Promoting these initiatives digitally can be a challenge as search engines like Google may “see” you differently than how you see yourself. You understand what your core message is and whom your audience is, but does Google? Google and other search engines do not care about your business campaigns, your ads, TV commercials or billboards. They do not share your marketing vision and just analyze your website – the keywords they choose for your website’s ranking may not be ones you would have selected yourself. Perhaps the content and the phrases your site does rank for provides little or no ROI for your company. What you thought you were ranking for, you may not rank for at all.

Part one of understanding your search market is to identify your SEO visibility and market share. Looking at the example of Timothy’s mother from a company’s perspective, we want to understand how visible an online retailer’s website is in a search engine – lets call them Brand A. We used the research area of Searchmetrics SuiteTM to understand what SEO visibi-lity Brand A has. As a marketer or a business you may be asking what SEO visibility really means to you – what is the significance? The rank and search volume of each keyword Brand A ranks for defines their SEO visibility. Basically it describes the likelihood of a user coming across a website while searching the web/Google.

2 Gartner’s Key Findings from U.S. Digital Marketing Spending Survey, 2013 published on 6 March 2013 on gartner.com






Chart 1.A shows two-years worth of Brand A’s historical data. In the chart, we can see that Brand A has continuously increased with minor up and down spikes with organic keywords. This insight provides Brand A with the power to keep track of successful and unsuccessful events. These events can be linked to multiple elements, but the best way to understand where you rank is to see which keywords you are and are not ranking for.

To some businesses, what they are ranking for may come as a surprise. For example, if selling the iPad is not the only priority for Brand A, and selling a product like the language learning software Rosetta Stone is also important, they may want to readjust their strate-gies.

Below is an example of how Brand A ranks for both the iPad and Rosetta Stone organically:

Chart 1.B

Chart 1.A

BrandA...com/

BrandA...com/


This insight alone cannot provide a business with the full picture of their search market. Going a step further, once you have identified your SEO visibility and keyword rankings, you will need to compare this to the rest of the market. Maybe page 1 position 6 for the iPad is not helping your business generate money. Especially since Timothy’s mother might check out one of the higher-ranking spots – your competition.

Who are you really competing against?

Just as your traditional marketing position may differ from your search marketing situation, the competitive landscape can also vary. Digitally, your competitors can be vastly or only slightly different from your traditional competition. For example, if your business is a fashion magazine or blog and you make your money by increasing traffic to your site, you can be competing against brands like Zappos and other media sites if someone searches for “red shoes” or “best sneakers” etc.

In the case of Brand A their full competitive landscape can be seen in Chart 1.C below pul-led from the competitor overview of the Searchmetrics SuiteTM. They are competing against other online retailers, news and blog sites. And in Chart 1.D you can see the top 10.

Chart 1.C


Chart 1.D

Taking a deeper dive into this information and comparing Brand A against two of their competitors, one in the top 10: amazon.com (1.E) – another online retail site – and one not in the top 10: pcworld.com (1.F) – a review site, we can see they share almost 120K over-lapping keywords with amazon.com and under 10K with pcworld.com. Both of these sites are Brand A’s competitors, but now Brand A can begin deciding how they should position themselves against both and seek hidden potentials. For example what relevant keywords are the competitors ranking for that they are not and what keywords are their non-traditio-nal competitors ranking for that they should be.

Chart 1.E


Chart 1.F

After having identified your market by selecting keywords that are relevant to you, we can magnify what piece of the pie Brand A really owns. We need to set up a project in Search-metrics SuiteTM . This way we can identify what keywords we want to benchmark and com-pare this to the general market to get an accurate and relevant market share.

In Brand A’s case, after they have selected their benchmarking, we can see that only a fracti-on of the top ten own a portion of the targeted market. Overall the top ten owns only slight-ly less than 50% of visibility in the overall market.

Chart 1.G


What does this mean? Brand A now has the insight to see where they fit overall and to iden-tify where they fit within a targeted set of keywords that are important to them and their ROI.

Where are your customers?

The final step to understanding your search market is to learn where your potential custo-mers are and how they are speaking about you or the products and services you offer. One common mistake companies can make is to ignore what consumers are saying about their brand and their brands products. How are your customers talking about your company, your products and your services? For example, some consumers may refer to a specific product as one thing and a company can refer to theirs in another away. The company may refer to the newest line of devices as “the new iPad” while your potential consumer may call it the “iPad 3”.

It is important to be aware of this. Ask for feedback from your customers and your sales force. Interacting with them will allow you to gain greater insights into why they like you and can shed light on your strengths or weaknesses.

Extra tip: Have a look at your site’s internal search – what are users searching for on your own site? Do you meet their search expectations?

Key takeaways

By understanding how the “right words” impact your overall visibility you can recognize your keyword strengths and weaknesses when comparing yourself to the competition. It is important to estimate market share visibility, explore hidden opportunities, identify both traditional and organic search competitors and set competition benchmarks. Last but not least, listen to your customers and be aware of their language. See how they are speaking about products to understand how you can target them.


Step 2: Finding hidden potentials

Going beyond brainstorming and leveraging a research database

Based on your current marketing, your analytics, your social marketing, your customers and sales feedback, find new keywords and use Searchmetrics business intelligence to qualify their potential. In the case of Brand A the following keywords have been selected to identify the keyword potentials in the Searchmetrics SuiteTM.

Chart 2.A

In chart 2.A, you can see individual keywords, the potential traffic index and keyword difficulty for Brand A. Brand A can now see what their reach could be by the keywords they have selected to focus on and how difficult it is to leverage this potential due to competi-tion.


Using your web traffic analytics

The best way to track your site‘s success is to integrate your web analytics traffic. Integrating Google Analytics or Adobe SiteCatalyst with Searchmetrics SuiteTM, will allow you deeper insights, which are more accurate to your business. You can discover the hidden champions that work for you based on your actual traffic.

In addition you will be able to specify your desired rankings and predict the increased traffic from this. Below is an example of what you can see after your web analytics has been integ-rated.

Chart 2.B

By specifying the desired ranking you can see what needs to be achieved and how much work will need to be done – ultimately focusing your efforts.

Key takeaways

Find and evaluate hidden potential by forecasting traffic based on keywords or groups of keywords. Analyze current organic traffic. Specify ranking targets and predict increased traffic. And with all of this, you get the most valuable insights into the behind the scenes dynamics of click through rates. It is challenging, but Searchmetrics stand out amongst the rest who still use the old school AOL data.


Step 3: Finding better keywords and being more relevant

Testing Campaigns using PPC

The secret to improving your search marketing ROI significantly is, after gaining a deep un-derstanding of your search market and your potential, to run test campaigns and see how they increase your visibility. Take all keywords, from brainstorming, from keyword research, from analytics and cluster them according to a topic, product, service, or target group. Crea-te a specific landing page for each of the clusters. Then put the keywords in test campaigns (one for each cluster) with PPC to instantly drive traffic to them. Check these keywords to see what drives your business and ultimately your ROI.

Do any of these test keywords with PPC actually equate to revenue, not just increased traffic? Calculate the estimated ROI for each of these organic keywords with Searchmetrics’ SuiteTM. See how these keywords will impact revenue by setting the conversions properly.

Chart 3.A

Conversion optimization tip: Apply conversion optimization methods to create even better landing pages!

Key takeaways

Create specific landing pages with the right (relevant) keywords, check the revenue contri-bution with paid search (PPC) and produce higher conversions by optimizing your landing page.


Step 4: Integrating search and social marketing strategies

Combine PPC, SEO, and Social in a Smart way – The One-Search way!

Think of it like the game Monopoly, the more spaces you own and houses you add to the right ones, the greater the odds of someone landing on your site and spending more there. Start an integrated search and social marketing strategy for the keywords that significantly contribute to your business success. Do so by combining the power of PPC, SEO and social engagement.

In Chart 1.B the organic keyword ranking for Brand A’s iPad and Rosetta Stone, we saw iPad rank position 6 on page 1 and Rosetta Stone rank on page 2. When viewing Brand A’s paid keywords, we notice they spend on iPad, but not for Rosetta Stone. If Rosetta Stone is an important product to sell, it would be vital for them to combine PPC, ramp up their SEO and add in social to increase their visibility and the likelihood of being clicked on.

Chart 4.A

With PPC spending on the rise and said to increase 15% globally3, it is important to com-plement PPC spending with strong SEO efforts. Extend successful landing pages with high quality content covering the relevant keyword set.

In addition, work on internal and external linking to really enhance each campaign. And monitor new and lost links. Brand A is able to see exactly which links they won and lost. In chart 4.B you can see the historical trend and notice where they lost and gained the most links. This information is vital for a business to be aware of especially when Google releases a new update. With the release of Google’s Penguin 2.0 update, we did an analysis on the update to see the winners and the losers were.

3 Report: Global PPC Spend Rises 15% On Higher Click Volume And Click-Through Rates In Q1 published on 23 April 2013 by Search Engine Land

http://searchengineland.com/report-global-ppc-spend-rises-15-percent-higher-click-volume-click-through-rates-q1-201-156577

http://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/2013/05/23/google-penguin-update-2-0-loser-analysis/

http://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/2013/05/23/google-penguin-update-2-0-loser-analysis/

http://searchengineland.com/report-global-ppc-spend-rises-15-percent-higher-click-volume-click-through-rates-q1-201-156577


Chart 4.B

Social signals and social links have become a major ranking factor and were discussed in a recent white paper we did on Google Ranking Factors 2013. Social media plays a role in how your business performs in search engines. If you do not assist your strong SEO efforts with social you will no longer have a strong SEO effort.

Fueling the landing page with social links by surrounding it with a social media campaign has proven to be vital according to the Google Ranking Factors study. However, be aware that your social campaign should resonate with your search marketing efforts. Many users may later search on Google for the campaign they have seen shared by you or their friends in their social feeds so it is important the keywords are a similar set.

Key takeaways

It is important to be aware of when combining PPC, SEO and social is needed to drive traffic and ultimately conversions. Create strong internal and external links, monitor new and lost links as well as forming social activities around campaigns and content creation by adding social links to pages.

http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/services/ranking-factors-2013/download/


Step 5: Going the distance

Monitoring & continuing improvements

If you want your business to succeed in the long-term you will need to go the distance. It is important to have the right tools to assist your digital marketing efforts. By understanding how you are seen and what you are ranked for you can strategically plan your marketing initiatives.

Creating reports and dashboards (5.A) to easily monitor your search and social marketing campaigns can take your business further faster. Companies can monitor this information through API, technology integrations or using a search and social analytics platform like Searchmetrics SuiteTM. It is about creating customizable reports and dashboards to fit the needs of your business. In Searchmetrics SuiteTM businesses can customize and schedule reports to be distributed to the right people automatically. You can send the report to senior or C-level management that might not understand SEO in-depth, but provide them with a report that shows your businesses growth and increased traffic – essentially proving your budget.


Chart 5.A

Key takeaways

Always continue to improve and enhance your efforts. Create dashboards and reports that make sense to you and your business. The more you improve and monitor your activities the greater advantage you have in staying one-step ahead.

The Bottom-Line

Taking the time to understand your search market value will enable you to successfully find your keyword potential and customer market. By integrating your search and social marke-ting strategies and by continuing to improve these tactics you can optimize the return on your invested search marketing budget.


About Searchmetrics

Searchmetrics is a pioneer and world‘s leading provider of search and social analytics software for enterprises and online agencies. The company’s unique server infrastructure and software solution – the Searchmetrics SuiteTM – is a premium search and social analytics product used by clients and partners to develop successful digital marketing strategies aimed at increasing online visibility. The Suite allows users to aggregate and analyze very large volumes of data on the rankings of websites, keywords in searches and competitor activity. It gives users unique insight into the visibility of websites on search engines in 124 different countries and on the largest social media portals. This information plays a decisive role, especially in inbound marketing, where having excellent visibility on search engines is essential for companies to reach potential customers on the Internet. In addition to the Suite, Searchmetrics’ Essentials product is a tool set for real-time market analysis and insights, supporting a quick start in search engine and social network optimization.

The company has branches in Berlin, London, Paris and New York and operates its SaaS software through a network of partners and an online shop. Based in Berlin, the fast-growing company currently employs more than 100 staff. It is part-owned by the renowned venture capitalist companies Neuhaus Partners and Iris Capital. Many renowned clients, such as T-Online, eBay, Siemens, TUI, GM and Kaspersky rely on Searchmetrics to ensure they have excellent visibility through intelligent online marketing strategies.

Visit us at Searchmetrics.com to learn more. Should you have questions about Searchmetrics SuiteTM or if you are interested in a quote, please contact our sales team [email protected] or [email protected].

*The findings in this white paper are based on the U.S. market and search engine Google.

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