Google’s Content Network is one of the largest publishing networks on the internet today, with literally millions of websites displaying Adwords ads.  I’ve been a fan of the Content Network since it launched around 2003, although many advertisers found it to be fraught with low-quality traffic.

Google has done a lot to clean up the network and make it more robust.  That said, it doesn’t work the same way as search.  There are a few techniques you need to know to be run a successful pay per click advertising campaign on the Content Network.

Set Up Separate Content Network Campaigns.

The default setting in Adwords lumps Content campaigns in with search campaigns.  While this is the best way for Google to make more money, it’s not the best way for advertisers to generate the most leads.  Everything about Content is different from search:  from keywords to ad copy to optimization techniques.  Therefore, a distinct Content campaign is a must.

Go Broad, But Keep Ad Groups Tightly Focused.

In Content, you’re not bidding on keywords.  You’re telling Google what type of websites you want your ads to display on.  It’s okay to bid on really broad terms that you’d never consider in search, such as “travel,” “running shoes,” “luxury hotel,” and the like.

What is not okay is to lump all of these broad terms into the same ad group. (It’s not okay to do this in search, either – but that’s another post.)  Ad groups in Content should contain 5-10 similar keywords, and ad copy should be relevant to those keywords.

Get Crazy With Your Ad Copy.

With search ads, it’s important to use a direct, offer-based ad.  Direct marketing techniques apply when writing search ads – make it clear that your ad fits the term the searcher typed into Google (or Yahoo or whatever).  With Content, no one is searching – instead, ads display on web pages containing content that’s related to your ad and the keywords you chose.  Visitors aren’t on the site to find something – they’re there to read the content.  Your job is to make your ad so interesting that they (a) see it and (b) click on it.

This is the time to try something crazy.  Ad headlines like “You’re Missing Out” or “Don’t Get Fooled” or “Coffee Secrets Exposed” are really effective in Content.  There’s a great tutorial on writing effective Content ads in the e-book Customers Now, written by my good friend David Szetela.

Test The Remarketing Waters.

Remarketing (or retargeting, as it’s also known) has become all the rage – I think I’ve seen 3-4 presentations on it in the last 3 months.  In a nutshell, remarketing uses cookies to tag visitors to your site who visited a certain page and/or took a certain action, and serves specialized ads to them on Content sites later on during the cookie duration (usually at least 30 days).  Most ad networks offer this feature; however, they’re usually done on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis and they often have a high minimum spend commitment.

But if you just want to test this feature, Google has come to your rescue with their Remarketing program.  It’s all CPC, and there’s no minimum – you just have to create your ad (it’s image ads only, not text) and put the tracking code on your site’s pages, and you’re off and running.

If you’ve shied away from Content in the past, and you’re looking to generate more leads from your pay per click advertising campaign, now is a great time to give it a try.

Pure Michigan has received a lot of credit for its marketing program lately.

It looks like michigan.org will seal another year as the nation’s #1 Visited State Tourism Website.

And, within just 90 days of launch, michigan.org was rated the #1 Social Media Program (Gammet Interactive) for its aggressive push into social networking – boasting 20,000+ fans on their Facebook Fan Page, along with vibrant Twitter, and blog presences.

But it really shouldn’t be this way…

What about Hawaii, New York, Florida, and California; big states with “Nation-Sized” budgets and economies?  Tourism meccas blessed with the best climates on earth and larger than life attractions (Statue of Liberty, Disney World, Golden Gate Bridge)?

The answer is simpler than you think.

Michigan found a way to use the online channel to make its brand assets work smarter and harder. Let’s take a look at some of the key foundations for Pure Michigan’s dominance:

• Full Participation for Every Marcom Stakeholder

Online marketing has as full seat at the table. Often, the lure of traditional media overshadows the blocking-and-tackling judo employed by digital specialists.  In Michigan’s case, digital was given the resources and attention it needed to deliver results.

• Integration

Early on, the Travel Michigan team tied its objectives to the seamless integration of its web initiatives.  Our team at Fluency Media delivered digital programs that collapsed silos and combined the strengths of multiple platforms.

Quickly, we saw email marketing (still a killer app) spark rapid growth in all social media channels.  Integrating pay-per-click and SEO led to Michigan achieving top rankings on terms long dominated by private travel aggregators.

Across the board, integration proved its mettle by knitting together a formidable blend of tactics.

• Rigorous Tracking and Testing

From the beginning, Michigan used analytics to guide decision-making and strategy.  Every meeting was led by reporting of quantitative results.

Over time, Michigan was able to parlay small improvements into dramatic increases in visitors, subscriber sign-ups, and social media participation.

Like all successful marketing strategies, getting started is the most difficult step.  However, Pure Michigan’s case study offers some fascinating insights into outwitting and outplaying larger rivals.

But if you don’t have the time or resources to build a “Giant Killing” marketing program from scratch, your best move is to work with an experienced partner that has already built the best practices to succeed.

You’ve spent months building the website for your new online business, and now you’re ready to do some internet marketing.  You’ve heard about pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO), and you know that both will help you show up on Google and other search engines.  But which one do you do first?

At Fluency Media, we recommend starting with PPC.  While it may seem counter-intuitive to begin the search marketing process by driving paid traffic instead of “free” organic traffic, it’s actually the best route in the long run.

SEO is a long-term investment that often will ultimately generate the majority of your website’s traffic.  However, it’s difficult for a brand-new site to rank well in the search engines.  Search engine spiders look for things like site age, inbound links, and other factors – all of which put a new site at a disadvantage.

Never fear, though, because this is where PPC comes in!  Unlike SEO, PPC campaigns can be launched quickly.  With a little advanced planning, a well-crafted PPC campaign can serve as the basis for future SEO efforts.  I wrote about the process in depth over at Search Engine Watch.  Even a small PPC campaign will yield invaluable data that you can use to jump-start your SEO.

Like I said, SEO is a long-term investment.  And once a site or page is optimized, it’s hard to “re-optimize” for totally different keywords.  Therefore, it’s essential to make sure you’re optimizing your website for the most leveraged keyphrases at the outset, instead of wasting valuable resources on the wrong words.

Communication between your PPC manager and your SEO specialist is critical at this point.  Our specialists have regular meetings and impromptu conversations when working with new sites.  This collaboration is important, as it helps to share finding such as:

• PPC keywords with the best cost per conversion
• Ad copy that converts the best
• Keywords that convert, but have a low Quality Score
• Keywords that are relevant, but don’t convert

By making the investment in PPC first, we’ve been able to help our clients jump-start the SEO process and achieve high rankings and organic traffic much more quickly than if we focused on one without the other.

Last week, I had the honor of joining several of my PPC colleagues in sharing our 2010 pay per click advertising predictions on the PPC Rockstars podcast.

Some of the predictions on the show were pretty far out there – take a listen and see if you agree! Feel free to share your predictions in the comments below.

It seems easy enough to start a PPC advertising campaign.  In fact, many new advertisers jump right in:  they pull out their credit card, put in a few keywords, and send everything to the homepage.  They’re convinced that PPC is an easy way to start getting traffic and leads for their website.

Not so fast.  Successful PPC advertising is an investment of time and money.  It’s not something you do once and stop.  If you really want to get a return on your advertising dollar, you’ll need to spend several thousand dollars per month.

It’s like buying a house.  Would you whip out your credit card and buy a house in 10 minutes?  I didn’t think so.

Just like buying a house, successful PPC marketing takes research and preparation.  Here are the steps to take before you open that Adwords account.

Think about your business goals:

• What’s the goal of your website?  Is it e-commerce, lead generation, information, or something else?
• Why do you want to do PPC – what would you like to get out of it?  Increased sales or leads, improved brand awareness, event promotion, other?
• Is there a specific product or service you want to focus on, or do you just want to improve ROI across the board?

Make sure your website is ready:

We see a lot of advertisers whose websites are unprepared for PPC visitors.  Unprepared can mean:

• Lack of web analytics.  Web analytics enable site owners and digital marketing agencies to track and measure website activity – from the number of total visitors to the number of sales or leads generated.  Starting PPC without analytics is like flying blind – you won’t know where you are headed.  There are many excellent analytics packages out there – some, like Google Analytics, are free; others have a monthly or one-time cost.  There’s no right or wrong package – just get one installed before you spend a dime on PPC.
• Lack of a call to action.  I can’t tell you how many PPC ads I’ve clicked on, only to get to the website and have no idea what I’m supposed to do.  Do you want your visitors to buy something?  Then make sure you have an “Add To Cart” or “Buy Now!” button on the landing page.  Are you looking for lead generation?  Then make sure you have a simple contact form on the page.
• Lack of a post-conversion plan.  So the visitor converted.  Great!  Now what?  Obviously, if you’re an e-commerce site, you’ll fulfill the order.  But that’s only the first step.  Think about whether you want to continue to market to the customer.  Email marketing is a great way to do this, but not the only way.  The point is, think about this ahead of time.

Think about your ad copy:

Ad copy is critically important.  You have 70 characters to make your product or service stand out on the search results page.  Yet many advertisers spend less than 5 minutes crafting ad copy.

Don’t fall into that trap.  Take the time to develop winning ad copy.  Include elements like:

• Your unique selling proposition
• Benefits of your product or service
• A clear call to action

Believe it or not, it’s possible to include all of the above in 70 characters, and when done properly, it really pays off.

Do yourself, and your business, a favor – take the time to think about these elements before you begin your PPC campaign, and you’ll reap the benefits of increased sales & leads as a result.

Melissa Mackey, Online Marketing Manager at Fluency Media, provides ClickZ with insight in the October 9th article, “Yahoo! Now Filters Ads in Search Results Too.”  The article describes how Yahoo! has now added the ability for a publisher’s ads to be filtered in the search results.

According to Melissa, “I think it limits competition and gives a huge preference to big-name brands like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Buy.com, and the like.  This effectively cuts off the lesser-known advertisers who may have a great product and offer, but lack the household name.”

Melissa Mackey is a veteran PPC marketer that helps clients get maximum ROI from paid search.

Check out this great article on DM News by Fluency Media’s own Melissa Mackey, where she talks about how paid search can influence your non-search conversions.

http://www.dmnews.com/The-great-influence-of-PPC-on-non-search-conversions/article/146636/?DCMP=EMC-DMN_DigitalInsider

Well, it finally happened: Microsoft and Yahoo have entered into a search and advertising agreement. Few will be surprised by this announcement, as it’s been in the works for at least 18 months. Still, many search engine marketers are optimistic about the future for these two giants.

In fact, when it comes to search, neither Microsoft nor Yahoo are giants at all.  Granted, Yahoo.com is still the most-visited site on the web, and Microsoft is, well, Microsoft. But in search, as we all know, Google is king. With Google’s market share hovering between 65% and 70%, it’s unlikely that the new MSFT/YAHOO partnership will unseat them any time soon. However, MSFT has been gaining share since they launched the Bing search engine in early June.

While Yahoo’s search traffic still exceeds that of Microsoft/Bing, it was Yahoo who was really losing market share, not Google – which is why this marriage makes sense.

Advertisers seem to feel that this is a positive step. According to ChoiceValueInnovation.com, the new website set up by MSFT and Yahoo, “For Web users and advertisers, this deal will accelerate the pace and breadth of innovation by combining both companies’ complementary strengths and search platforms into a market competitor with the scale to fuel sustained development in search and search advertising.”

In plain English, this is the best of both worlds. Yahoo has the traffic, but lacks a good PPC interface with which to harness the traffic. Microsoft, on the other hand, has robust PPC tools, including an offline campaign editor and targeting options that even Google doesn’t offer. What they don’t have is traffic. The combination of Yahoo’s traffic with Microsoft’s tools will result in increased economies of scale for PPC advertisers.

Many questions still linger, however. One big one for PPC advertisers is the question of customer service. The MSFT/Yahoo site says that “Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.” What defines “premium search advertisers”? They don’t elaborate, but I suspect they’re referring to Fortune 500 companies. If so, that’s good news for the rest of us, as Microsoft adCenter has a far better customer service track record than Yahoo does.

Any way you slice it, this has been an exciting day for those of us in the search engine marketing industry. What do you think about the deal? Discuss it in the comments!

Earlier this week, the world celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first man on the moon.  We all know that this was “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”  But what would the moon landing have been like if they didn’t land the lunar module in the right place?

It may not have been disastrous, but it probably wouldn’t have gone as smoothly as it did.  Landing in the right place is critical to a mission’s success.

Likewise, if you want to achieve maximum success from your PPC lead generation campaigns, it’s critical to land PPC visitors in the right place.

Clue #1:  The right place is probably not your home page.

Many site owners place all their focus on the home page of their website.  They proudly show it to their friends and colleagues.  And they think this is the only door to their website.  Not so.  The home page is rarely an optimal PPC landing page.  It’s too general, and forces people to look around.  I’ve heard clients and CEOs say, “but, I want them to look around so I can upsell them on my other products and services.”  That may be fine for a bricks and mortar store, but if someone is searching online, they’re essentially telling you what they’re looking for.  Don’t make them search again when they get to your site.

Clue #2:  Find the most relevant page for the search term, and tell the searcher what you want them to do when they get there.

If you’re an e-commerce site, it’s best to land searchers on the page that matches the product for which they searched.  If the search term is “red Nike shoes,” you want to send them to a page where they can buy red Nike shoes right then and there.  If your goal is lead generation or email signups, your best landing page bet is your “contact us” page, or a page with a contact form prominently featured above the fold.

See a pattern here?  Give the searcher what they want.  Don’t make them think.  (In fact, if you’re doing online marketing or have a website at all, you need to read Steve Krug’s book, Don’t Make Me Think.  It’s a quick read full of actionable tips.)  Search engines give searchers a lot of options, and even young children know how to use the back button.  Don’t let them.  Give them a clear path to conversion.

I often hear clients say that they think this approach is too forward; or they worry that their contact page doesn’t have enough information for a searcher to make a decision to sign up.

Clue #3:  Test it and find out.

My mantra is always “test, test, and test again.”  If your goal is generating email signups, I’m always going to recommend that you land PPC visitors on your contact page – because that’s what works for our clients 99% of the time, no matter what the vertical.  However, testing never hurts.  Run a landing page test:  send half the visitors to the contact page, and half to an informational page.  See what happens.

It doesn’t hurt to compromise, either.  Put a contact form on your informational page – a short form for name and email address is sufficient.  Or add an informational paragraph to your contact page.  And keep the page navigation.  I’ve heard some experts recommend removing all possible “outs” on a PPC landing page, including page nav – but I don’t agree with this.  That’s like walking up to a customer in your store and only giving them one option, preventing them from seeing any others.  It’s too easy to hit the back button.  If people do want more info, let them browse – just make sure you have a prominent link to your contact form in the nav and on key pages, so they can find it when they’re ready.

For a successful landing, make it very, very clear what you want people to do when they get to your site.  It’s the best way to take a giant leap forward with lead generation from your PPC campaigns.

Many marketers consider email marketing to be old school. Email has been around for a long time – longer than Twitter, longer than Facebook, and yes, even longer than Google. But it’s the workhorse of direct marketing and still generates some of the best ROI in online marketing.

While email is probably the best way to communicate with current customers, it’s not so great at customer acquisition. Sure, you can buy lists, but that’s costly, and bounce rates and unsubscribe rates tend to be high, often exceeding 50% or more. And often those who do subscribe have a lifetime value that’s well below average.

How can you quickly generate a large number of qualified leads to your email database?

The answer is simple: use pay-per-click. PPC has a plethora of features that work to your advantage:

1. Ease of use: Accounts can be set up in a few minutes with a computer and a credit card.
2. Quick turnaround: Ads can be live on Google, Yahoo, and Bing within 24 hours – and often more quickly than that.
3. Targeted audience: Most people know that, with PPC, you get to choose what keywords you bid on.  But did you know that the PPC engines allow you to use geo-targeting to select the countries, states, and cities in which your ads appear?  Yes indeed.  In addition to geeo-targeting, you can also schedule your ads to appear only during certain times of the day and/or days of the week.  All of these features enable marketers to focus their marketing budget on the visitors they’re looking for.
4. Targeted message: Unlike organic listings, advertisers have total control over their PPC ad copy. This is the place to promote coupons, freebies, features, benefits… anything that will entice a searcher to become a lead.
5. Targeted landing page: Just as you can control your PPC ad copy, you also have total control over your landing page. We’ve had the best luck generating leads by sending PPC traffic right to the email signup form. A well-designed contact form does double-duty: it puts the form fields right under the nose of the visitor, yet has enough copy, navigation, and visual appeal to avoid offending them.
6. Immediate feedback:  Online marketing is great because of its immediacy – you’ll know very quickly what’s converting into leads and what isn’t.  PPC is especially nimble, in that advertisers can eliminate non-performing keywords and ads within minutes.

We’ve been able to generate hundreds of leads per day for clients using PPC, and with the right keywords, ad copy, and landing page message, have generated 1,000% increases in database size with very low unsubscribe rates.