Inside Adwords has announced today that Google rolled out a new feature to its Adwords paid search platform called product extensions.  Currently available to U.S. customers only, product extensions will be a way to enhance your existing ads by showing searchers your product images, titles and prices in a plusbox located beneath the ad.  The products will be most relevant to the searcher’s query and the advertiser is charged on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis.  If a searcher clicks on the ad text, or a product within the product extensions plusbox, the advertiser will be charged for the click.  The advertiser will not be charged if the searcher clicks on the plusbox, but does not click through to the advertiser’s site.  The use of product extensions will enhance a searcher’s experience by increasing the relevance for shopping-related queries by allowing advertisers to include relevant product information directly within the ad.  Even further, the product extensions feature give advertisers the option to select which products they prefer to display for specific search queries in addition to the ability to use automatic targeting.  According to the Inside Adwords blog post, a specific advertiser who implemented product extensions feature during Google’s beta test reported seeing over a 10% increase in click-through-rate (CTR) for their ads.

To get started with product extensions, simply go to the Google Merchant Center and add your Adwords customer ID to your account.

Kurt Kaufer

Google Adwords Product Extensions

Recently, I’ve received more and more questions regarding two important key metrics in the search engine marketing world, bounce rate and exit rate. There seems to be some confusion about the difference between the two, what they actually measure, and how they are valuable tools in a digital marketing campaign. I thought I would use the second installment of my “Back to the Basics” blog to help clarify these mysterious performance indicators.

Bounce rate by definition is the percentage of visitors who land on the website and view only one page (without visiting any other pages) before leaving. For example: Kurt sees a pay-per-click ad which was advertising a wetsuit sale at a local surf shop. He clicks on the ad which takes him to the “sale” landing page. After he reads the page he then leaves the website to go back to Google and start another search. Typical ways a bounce is recorded is by:

• Clicking on an internal link to a page outside of the website
• Closing the browser window or tab
• Simply typing in a new URL
• Clicking the “back” button and leaving the site
• Session-timeout*

*A session-timeout is when a visitor views a specific page, doesn’t look at another page, and leaves the browser idle for a certain amount of time. A commonly used session-timeout threshold is 30 minutes; so once this time limit has been reached a bounce is recorded.

Exit rate by definition is the percentage of visitors who leave the website from a specific page based on the number of visits to that page. The difference between bounce rate and exit rate is that the visitor who exited from this specific landing page may have viewed many other pages on the website before landing on this specific page and then exiting from here. For example: Kurt sees a pay-per-click ad for a local surf shop that just opened. He clicks on the ad which brings him to the home page of the website. He views a few different pages before going to the “sale” page. After he reads the “sale” page he then closes his browser window, hops in his car and speeds to the surf shop.

How to use these metrics:
Both of these performance indicators can create actionable insight, but are used very differently. Bounce rate is important for determining how your landing page might be performing. If you have a ppc ad running and you find that you have a 75% bounce rate for the specific product page which your ad brings the user to, then there is a problem with the landing page. Why would so many users leave a page that was specifically targeted for them? What about the page is preventing them from moving onto other correlated pages within the site? Optimizing the page, multivariate testing, and statistical analysis may help you determine what the root cause and solution may be.

Exit rate is important for determining how a particular page is performing in the sales process. If, as an advertiser, you have mapped out a specific sales (page) funnel, and visitors seem to be exiting from one specific page in that funnel, then you know that that page is problematic and needs to be optimized.
As you can see, both metrics can be powerful tools in identifying specific problems in the user interaction process and help you determine what changes are needed to increase sales and ensure a better return on your ad spend.

Kurt Kaufer

If you’re not familiar with the Google Ad Preview Tool than this post is an opportunity for you to add something new to your PPC tool belt.  It seems that more now than ever clients are interested in seeing their ads in action.  They are doing multiple searches daily with the hope of seeing their ads show above their competitors or just to monitor the ad generation that hired guns are doing on their behalf.  What most fail to realize though is that the impressions generated from these “false” searches count towards specific metrics utilized to measure success on both the agency-side and the Google algorithm-side.  Essentially, these searches inflate impressions without the chance for clicks, thus lowering the campaign’s click-thru rate (CTR).  The click thru-rate is a large component of the ads quality score, and the quality score has a direct impact on the bid that is needed to obtain a certain position.  Agencies and consultants need to communicate to their clients that while these searches are alleviating their obsessive need to micro-manage their ad campaigns, they are ultimately affecting the performance of the ads and their wallets.

The benefit of the Google Ad Preview Tool is that clients and account managers now have the ability to check ads without generating impressions and affecting key metrics.  Additionally, this tool was designed to help advertisers see the ads when they’re targeting a location outside of their own location, and target specific languages other than their own computer language setup.

For access to the tool, please click on the image below.

Kurt Kaufer

In an age where a backlash against traditional advertising is fueling the growth of social media as a robust marketing channel, this un-intrusive and user engaging alternative communication medium is experiencing unprecedented growth both in terms of the amount of user generated content splashed onto the web and the tools available for understanding what these conversations mean to your brand.  As marketers become hyper-sensitive to the buying public’s increasing use of instinctive advertising defense mechanisms (such as selection and filtering), they are simultaneously being bombarded with an assortment of new tools and services to combat this messaging avoidance.  Staying on top of these new tools as they roll out is becoming a full time job upon itself, but ultimately the role of the marketer is to effectively integrate these tools in a way that not only connects with their target audience, but measures how this interaction impacts the business.

The earliest forms of social media were built on the premise of “members” exchanging information with other “members” across a wide range of topics.  Members create the content, the conversation, and have control over the conveyance and distribution of information.  In keeping with that tradition, this blog post, which presents five tools for social media measurement, is in itself a fundamental platform representing the principles of interactive social information flow.  I am neither trying to endorse nor detract from the below tools, and I am simply using this forum as a springboard for conversation, awareness, and information sharing.

With that said, the tools listed below are useful platforms for measuring brand reputation, tracking user trends, understanding influence, and analyzing customer sentiment.  As a marketer, the ability to organize and understand the massive amount of data available is paramount in not only being able to engage with your target customer base, but in converting them into loyal advocates for your brand.  The main goal is to create actionable insight from your conversation audit, thus advancing the brand and ultimately the business.  Below are five tools that help you get one step closer to realizing qualitative bliss.

Kurt Kaufer

QR stands for “quick response” and the QR code is a cube shaped 2-dimensional matrix code that permits users to obtain data at a high speed by simply using the scanner (camera) located on their mobile phone. Originally developed by the Japanese corporation, Denso-Wave in 1994, the codes were initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing. As the years have progressed, the genesis of this technology has enabled it to be used in a much broader context, including mobile marketing. A QR code is free and easy to generate, and with the code’s ability to store much more information than a traditional barcodes, a user now has the ability to connect with a brand by viewing highly targeted website URLs, text and sms messages, and storing personalized B2C information all from their mobile phone.

When a QR code is scanned, information from the code is transferred to the mobile device where it is processed by specialized software located on the phone. This convenience oriented application enables marketers to better narrowcast audiences by directing users to specific website landing pages, advertisements, coupons, and calls to action while keeping the advertiser’s brand top of mind through the user’s ability to store this information in their phone. Certain brands and industries have already recognized QR Codes as a new communication channel in their quest to reach an expanding generation of tech-savvy consumers and have been using these codes in numerous ways to help achieve their marketing and branding initiatives. From using them to build their social communities, to placing the codes on outdoor advertisements, for-sale signs, print advertisements, business cards, fast food wrappers, convention name badges, in-store advertisements, dvd cases, and even wine bottles, these codes are furthering the personalization aspect of mobile marketing and helping brands win the war of advertising resistance by the consumer.

Although QR codes have yet to be widely adopted in the United States, it is commonplace in certain countries within Europe and in Japan. The Japanese are continuing to innovate around their original technology by searching for ways ways to strategically reach customers who they say are increasingly suffering from information overload. The advent of change is upon us and as QR codes become more mainstream in the U.S., marketers and advertisers will increasingly rely upon the ease and accessibility of this pull marketing technology to connect with audiences in a more efficient and cost effective way. The innovation and evolution of this intelligent advertising platform will create a mobile revolution where phones will eventually become a consumer’s main information source. With over 3 billion mobile phones worldwide today, the QR code will be a powerful mechanism in providing information gratification for a society that increasingly demands it.

Kurt Kaufer

I once read that the difference between a weekend fisherman and a professional fisherman is that the professional fisherman writes down things like the date, water temperature, time, size of fish, the exact spot where he dropped the line, the weather conditions, etc…  Whereas the weekend fisherman will move from spot to spot, try new lures, buy new equipment and wonder why can’t catch many fish.  How does this related to a strategic marketing plan?  Simple.  The professional fisherman tracks and analyzes his results and is therefore able to make better decisions the next time out.

Although the example above is very simple, the solution is rarely that easy.  Now, in order for you to really, completely, fully understand how we at eBoost create strategic marketing plans there are three key elements you will need to know:

1. eBoosts Strategic Methodology
2. eBoosts Strategic Concept
3. One of eBoosts Strategic Tools

First up, we have eBoosts strategic methodology, also know as our strategic problem solving methodology.   In order to solve a problem we have to first have a problem, and we always formulate problems in the form of a question.

Problem:  How does our company increase sales?

Before we can even begin trying to answer this question we need information.  Information is the bread and butter of our strategic methodology and until we have enough of it, we keep collecting it.  So, what is enough?  Enough is 70% Data to 30% Critical Unknowns and Assumptions.

Date – Data is anything we can quantify.  Numbers, percentages etc…
Critical Unknowns – Critical Unknowns are always in the form of a question and questions that make this list are things we absolutely have to know before we can even begin trying to formulate a marketing plan.  For the example above,  a critical unknown would be how many sales do we have a month or year.  This is critical because we can’t accurately increase sales if we don’t know how many sales we currently have.
Assumptions – Assumptions are things we feel or think.  An assumption for the example above might be “I feel like our sales team could be closing more deals”.

An important thing to know is that when we quantify Critical Unknowns and Assumptions they become data.

After we have collected enough information we move to eBoosts Strategic Concept, Theory Focused Planning.  TFP uses Data, Critical Unknowns and Assumptions to help bridge the gap between where we currently are and where we’d like to be.  The chart on top of this page illustrates it much better but imagine a dot in the middle of a large circle.  That dot in the middle represents the perfect answer, the only thing is, it’s unreachable.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t get close to it and that is exactly what we are trying to do.  Why do you think that dot is unreachable?  Because of the ever changing Internal and External Factors that influence it.

Internal Factors
-    Strategy
-    Operational Activities
-    Resources
-    People
External Factors
-    Public
-    Micro Economic Forces
-    Customers
-    Competition

It’s also important to note that when we are collecting this information we are collecting it from the past and present so that we can better plan for the future, only makes sense since we make marketing plans for the future.  To illustrate this we use a Time Continuum and the past is 20/20 hindsight, present is 20/20 insight and future is 20/20 foresight.

The last piece to the puzzle is one of our Strategic Tools, the 3C Model.

The 3C Model was discovered by Kenichi Ohmae, a partner of McKinsey and Company in the mid 1980’s and what he did was study successful Japanese businesses to better understand how they worked and what made them so successful.  What he discovered was that each one of these successful Japanese businesses had perfect balance between their Company, Customers and Competition.  This is where we get the 3C’s and the perfect equilateral triangle.  The triangle itself represents complete balance, that’s why it’s exactly 60 degrees on each side.  Kenichi said that when a company has this perfect harmony and balance between the 3C’s, then and only then can they sustain a competitive advantage.

So how does this tie into how we formulate strategic marketing plans?  Since we have compiled a lot of Data, Critical Unknowns and Assumptions up to this point we can now take that information and see where it falls into the 3C’s.  We might find that we know a lot about our competition and we might be doing things well within our company but we don’t really know our customers so then we know what we need to focus on.  We would then collect more information about the customers, we would test those Critical Unknowns and Assumptions to get data.  If for example you are collecting information and you notice a lot of Critical Unknowns related to your customers then that would be a pretty clear indication that the 3C triangle might not look like a perfect triangle at all.

Now that we collected all this information using our Strategic Methodology and Strategic Concept and have evaluated our current 3C Model to find areas where we can improve, we can finally formulate a sound Strategic Marketing Plan to help us achieve our goals and help balance out our 3C Triangle to ensure our business has a sustainable competitive advantage.

- Marko

It’s no secret that the customer is the basis of all marketing and business strategy. A corporation’s largest concern should be understanding the customer’s needs, wants, and demands because in the long run, a company that is genuinely interested in their customers will be interesting to investors. A successful business is built on having a profound perception of the entire consumer driven process highlighting what moves them from awareness, to interest, to eventual action. Having this understanding prefaces the strategic formulation of effective actionable insight. The end result can be a real competitive advantage in your industry.

Consumers can fall into many segments. For example, Gary A. Williams and Robert B. Miller state in their article entitled, “Change The Way You Persuade” that persuasion works best when it’s tailored to five distinct decision making styles. These styles include charismatics, thinkers, skeptics, controllers, and followers. Being able to tailor your messaging based on individual personalities can greatly improve your chances of creating an actionable and loyal customer base. Because each purchase decision is based off of many personal influences, it’s important to have a framework in place to identify what customer values and purchase styles are. One method to organizing this information is to create representative profiles of your customers based on real data. These hypothetical archetypes, or “personas” represent specific customer segments and include valuable information pertaining to their individual purchase behaviors, rationality, and emotions. Having these touch-points mapped out not only helps with marketing and business positioning strategies, but assists in creating alignment internally and externally when it comes to messaging, sales, and customer service. All internal and external parties will be making decisions from the same vantage point, using the same language. The end result can be an accelerated marketing foundation process that is highly effective in driving the consumer into your desired action.

Please click on the image below to see just how truly informative and effective a persona can be.

Kurt Kaufer