Like many I have purposely delayed converting client accounts over to Yahoo Search’s Project Panama. I had a sneak peek months ago and knew about the new fresh look but was not convinced our agency should be the first to expose our clients to this unproven platform.

I learned one year ago at the 2006 SES Conference in New York directly from Yahoo that Panama would be using a quality score to determine the cost per click opposed to the traditional Overture bidding that we have grown accustomed to. There was a small uproar with some attendees when this was announced. To be honest I was kind of relieved. I still cringe when I think of the inflated bid prices that have been artificial set by hyperactive bidders who didn’t take time to romance the campaign instead of trying to seduce it. Now these individuals will have to spend time in writing good ads and landing pages, or pay more than the ones who do.

I have seen the blog postings of some who are unimpressed with Panama. A reoccurring theme is that they are happy with the new user interface but will not be satisfied until Yahoo Search increases the volume of available searches.

I actually agree with both these points but will point out one thing I have not yet seen discussed in a blog posting. Yahoo’s implementation of local search has paid off well for us and our clients. Our firm has a heavy emphasis on geo-targeted searches and have campaigns that target up to 20 DMAs for one client. The goal, of course, is to generate traffic only within these geographic pockets. Up to this point Google and MSN have allowed this but Yahoo Search was a non performer. And no, Yahoo Local was not the answer.

We didn’t want to miss the coverage that Yahoo offered so we made location a part of each and every search term. This is very tedious and made for a lot of search terms but we have done this for years with many clients and thought the results were worth the effort.

The initial results of our Panama geo targeted campaigns are extremely promising. The volume of searches has increased of course, but with the added benefit of multiple ad groups and the ability to test them we have also increased the click through rate. Since we have a good quality score, we are paying less for more.

What is truly note worthy is the increase in conversions. We have to study this over a longer period but first indications are, in proportion to the clicks, we are getting more conversions from Yahoo than with Google. For the client in this particular study we track conversions by telephone appointments with each call recorded. We are seeing cases where the phone appointments are up while the overall click costs are down. We contribute this to Yahoo having, for this industry, a better conversion rate than Google.

Again these are early results but look promising. I will give it another month and report back with further details. Let me know what you have seen.

Pay Per Click, Blogs | No Comments »

The Center for Media Research reported Monday that 81% of survey respondents plan to increase 2007 spending on email marketing while 70% of respondents said they apply basic or no analysis to these campaigns.

As an Online Marketer I sometimes grumble at how offline media is not held up to the same standards as online for measurebility. I have even had a client, one of the top five US companies in telecommunications no less, say we shouldn’t hold traditional media up to the same standards as online. This was said while we were sitting down going over the details of their online campaign which reported how every dollar spent related to each conversion we achieved. The results of the online campaign weren’t bad but there was always this offline media superiority aura hovering over our heads. Since there was no way to measure the offline results it must be performing better than online.

Based upon experiences like this you would think I would be relieved to see survey responses like this. Wrong! We must go forward using the tools that are available no matter how uncomfortable they may sometimes make us. This should be done even at the cost of a decision to terminate a non performing online campaign and continuing a offline campaign where we just don’t know.

Pay Per Click, SEO, Tracking, Analytics, Offline Marketing, E-Mail Marketing | No Comments »

This question has been answered in so many ways with a common response of “it depends.” And it’s true–it depends on how much you need to make on your product or service after all the costs have been subtracted out.

Yes ROI has been written about many times before but for a good reason. You need to know how much you should spend to secure a sale. If your product sells for $500 and you stand to make $250 after all the manufacturing and administrative cost, and you know you need to clear $150 per sale to make it worth your time, then you have $100 per sale to put into your PPC campaign.

Once you have a clear goal for your online campaign you can quickly determine if it is worth pursuing. Using basic tools you determine the available searches (Impressions), apply the expected click through rate (CTR) for your industry so you know how many clicks to expect (Total Clicks), apply the average cost per click (Avg. CPC) so you know how much you expect to pay (Total Cost), and round it out by multiplying your conversion rate (CR) by Total Clicks so you know how many customers (Total Customers) to expect.

I will plug in some example numbers for these as follows: Impressions = 10,000, CTR = 8%, Total Clicks = 800, Avg. CPC $2.50, Total Cost = $2,000, CR = 5%, Total Customers = 40.

Remember the $100 per sale that you determined you could pay for a PPC campaign. Using the above example we would divide our total cost of $2,000 by the total customers expected of 40 resulting in an expect cost per acquisition of $50. Since this $50 is below the $100 we were prepared to pay we should proceed with the campaign.

A big consideration with all of this is to be aware that a new campaign does not have history to accurately predict the performance of any of these parameters. This is not a reason to neglect going through this process. Once you have a clear goal you can monitor the progress and pull the plug or accelerate the campaign as appropriate.

Technorati Tags: Pay Per Click, Marketing Budgets, SEM

Pay Per Click | No Comments »

This site is the new home for www.siteedgeagency.com. Welcome, and check back for industry news and helpful tips.

siteEDGE News, Client Stories, Team Profiles, Pay Per Click, SEO, Usability, Tracking, Analytics, Offline Marketing, Public Relations, Brand Management, E-Mail Marketing, Marketing Tools, Bios, Case Studies, Whitepapers, Press | No Comments »