By Bill Siwicki
Paid search keeps e-retailers on their toes because the rules are constantly changing. Just when a marketer thinks he’s nailed it, the search engines throw a monkey wrench into the works by changing the way they operate, costs per click jump, or keyword performance mysteriously drops. The concept of paid search may be easy to grasp, but operating a program on a daily basis is anything but easy.
“Search engines are constantly changing their algorithms—you can be on top one day, they change something, and then you’re not even listed,” says Steven Broussard, marketing director at Golfballs.com Inc.
Broussard knows this well. Golfballs.com experienced a huge spike in performance of search keywords through MSN’s search engine in April. Click-throughs on numerous terms shot up dramatically, the e-retailer says.
“Then they died off and traffic through MSN now is back to the same as it was before the spike,” he says. “We didn’t really change anything, so we’ve been looking at how MSN has been working to try and figure this out.”
Broussard is smack in the middle of learning a lesson he hopes will reap rewards with MSN, Google and Yahoo in future. It is imperative that e-retailers treat paid search marketing as a constant learning experience, search experts say.
Here are 10 lessons and tips from retailers and search engine marketing firms with years of experience and stories to tell.
1. Cleaning up
Proofing keywords and ad copy may be one of the basics, but it’s more important than ever, in large part because costs per click continue to increase.
Online marketing consulting firm PayingAttention.net reports cost per click for Google, Yahoo and MSN on average rose between 10 cents and 15 cents between June 2007 and January 2008. And search marketing firm NetElixir reports cost per click for Google increased on average from 92 cents to $1.18 from Q1 2006 to Q1 2008 for five representative retailer clients. The bottom line: It makes no sense to pay for search ads that are inaccurate or off the mark.
For example, when Luggage Online Inc. in January began receiving keywords its new search marketing firm proposed it should buy, the phrase “Samsonite bags” stood out.
“Samsonite is luggage, not bags,” says vice president of e-commerce Tim Jacobsen of the category-specific term. He says the vast majority of buyers looking for Samsonite are quite savvy when it comes to luggage and would enter “luggage,” not “bags.” Problems found when proofing keywords, he adds, typically are along these lines—when a word that qualifies another, in this case “bags” qualifying “Samsonite,” is not appropriate. Keep in mind, he suggests, that search marketing firms face a learning curve, just as e-retailers do.
When Luggage Online began working with the search marketing firm, NetElixir Inc., it created a proofing process in house to help ensure errors do not slip through. NetElixir sends a spreadsheet that contains all keywords and ad copy to Jacobsen and he or a marketing staff member reviews the contents to ensure keywords and copy are accurate and on the money.
And then there’s the sheer size of many paid search programs. The sum total of keywords and creative content can be so vast that e-retailers must have a strong quality assurance process in place, advises Gerry Bavaro, vice president of client services at search marketing firm Didit.com LLC.
“You have to have people trained in the best practices of writing,” Bavaro says. “Quality assurance in paid search starts with individuals who are writing copy and keywords, and they must be given time to review their work. They then move material to a manager, who proofs it all. And if an e-retailer employs a search marketing firm, the firm’s staff must then do a review. And when ad copy goes up, we have individuals who perform standard daily monitoring of creative and search results.”
2. Seeking input
What’s the difference between pedal pushers and crop pants? Give up? It’s a trick question—none.
However, the two apparel terms recently proved a little tricky for Amy Wong, marketing manager, e-commerce, at women’s apparel and accessories retailer New York & Company. She stresses the importance of seeking input on keywords and ad copy from others within and outside a retail organization.
“I’m new to the fashion industry—I didn’t know the term pedal pusher, though I knew crops. If I had been short-sighted I would have just had crops as a keyword, and I would have lost pedal pushers,” Wong says. “Don’t be afraid to ask for critiques. I ask peers and friends, some who are serious shoppers and some who are not. It’s important to get various views, including from people of different ages to ensure you’re not missing something due to the generation gap.”
Similarly, Wong says input from others can ensure a retailer has all the bases covered when it comes to variations on a theme.
“Dresses is a very broad keyword. So you have to break a broad keyword out into many relevant permutations,” she says. “Black mini-dresses, prom dresses, sun dresses—consumers are getting more savvy with search, and one order can make the difference on breaking even for a campaign.”
3. Stretching phrases
NetElixir just completed a study on paid search based on data from five retailer clients and found the average length of a keyword phrase has gone up from 2.05 to 2.28 words. One-word keywords in Q1 2006 accounted for 17% of all sales through paid search; this decreased to 13% in Q1 2008. For the same periods, two-word keywords dropped from 56% to 50%, three-word keywords jumped from 22% to 31%, and four-word keywords increased from 2% to 4%.
“Consumers are getting more evolved in trying to refine their searches,” says Udayan Bose, founder and CEO of NetElixir, “and there are common tools e-retailers can use to capitalize on how consumers are searching.”
Bose says e-retailers can use web analytics to study phrases shoppers enter in site search to help determine the best phrases for paid search.
“Site search results can help e-retailers refine their multiple keyword paid search strategies to increase sales,” he says. The more words a searcher uses the more likely he is to convert, because more words means the searcher knows what he is looking for and is more likely to buy, he contends.
One would think Golfballs.com could sink a lot of money into the short keyword phrase “golf balls” and reap tremendous return on investment, but that is not the case, says Tom Cox, CEO of the web-only retailer. A shopper searching for golf balls, the e-retailer says, typically narrows the search, qualifying the term with factors such as brand, compression, distance, swing speed, dimple pattern and many others.
“So we go more narrow and more granular in our keyword buy,” he explains. “We buy phrases such as ‘buy Nike One golf balls.’ There are fewer bids on terms that are not so broad, and these are the ones that generate the greatest ROI.”
4. Making things clear
E-retailers want to generate lots of clicks to get more shoppers to their sites, no doubt. “So I get more clicks,” says Brian Elliott, CEO of Alibris Inc., “but search today is less about clicks and more about what happens next.”
Elliott has been concerned about ensuring shoppers who reach Alibris.com through paid search know exactly who the retailer is and how it operates.
“You don’t have just one front door, you have doors all around the web experience. Because of paid search a lot of traffic comes into the site a lot deeper in our user experience,” Elliott says. “If a shopper’s first experience with you is not your home page but a product page, you have to think about web site layout and easily communicate to shoppers what you are about.”
Alibris is a marketplace for sellers, not a stand-alone retailer. There are thousands of sellers, many of whom offer the same products. A shopper who hits an Alibris.com web page from paid search may be presented with the same product from five sellers. This can cause confusion for a shopper unfamiliar with Alibris.
So the seller of books, music and video created a graphic that succinctly explains Alibris. After A/B testing showed pages with the graphic lead to more conversions, it now places the graphic on its paid search landing pages.
“If you think we’re a typical retailer, seeing multiple listings of the same product without explanation won’t make sense,” Elliott says. “Now searchers see our graphic, and it clearly shows just what kind of marketplace we are.”
5. Kicking the tires
Tests make people nervous. From grade school through adulthood, most people get at least a few shivers when confronted by a test. But one search marketing firm says its retail marketer clients are getting more comfortable with tests.
“In the past, clients have been reluctant to test keywords and ad copy because they’ve been afraid their paid search results will suffer as they are going through the testing,” says Bavaro of Didit.com. “Today they’ve become very focused on driving improvement and growth through testing because with paid search prices continuing to increase they know they no longer can afford bad clicks.”
It’s all about bringing in “qualified users,” Bavaro says, because if searchers click on ads that are not relevant to them, they don’t buy, and return on investment suffers.
Didit.com’s clients have been pushing in new directions with testing, going beyond trying variations on written copy to measuring shoppers’ responses to special offers.
“Retailers have stretched testing into shipping values, promotions, special pricing,” Bavaro says. “Retailers have begun to think hard about what differentiates them from the competition. It’s become no different than trying to cut through the ad clutter on TV at 8 p.m. Paid search is not this ‘set it and forget it’ strategy; clients are becoming more sophisticated.”
6. Borrowing a brand
Paid search text ads can look very similar, so retailers need to make sure the copy in their ads is tantalizing and clearly differentiates them from competitors. But there’s also a way to include a graphical component with text ads that some retailers and search marketing firms say can boost clicks and conversion.
If a retailer using Google’s AdWords program implements Google Checkout for payment, Google will place, upon a retailer’s request, a tiny version of the Google Checkout logo with its paid search text ads.
“Google Checkout is phenomenally good for paid search,” says William Leake, founder and CEO of Apogee Search, of early tests. “There are so many paid search ads that look and read the same. So how do you stand out among the clutter? The Google Checkout icon pulls shoppers’ eyes in.”
Leake adds that smaller retailers can “borrow” Google’s brand appeal and trust to give shoppers more faith in an e-retailer with which they are unfamiliar.
“Consumers have a goofily high trust in Google—mainstream America has great adulation for the brand,” Leake says. “A Google icon is like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.”
Luggage Online is implementing Google Checkout specifically because it hopes the icon with its text ads will improve click-through and conversion rates from paid search.
“It doesn’t cost much, if anything, to add Google Checkout because of the credits they give when used in tandem with their AdWords program,” Jacobsen says. Google gives retailers $1 in AdWords credit for every $10 processed through Google Checkout. “So if it will improve the performance of our ads, it will be well worth it.”
7. Going brandless
Generally speaking, brand keywords perform better in paid search than non-brand, generic terms, many e-retailers and search marketing firms say. So why use generic terms?
New York & Company’s Wong puts faith in non-brand keywords because she feels they are part of the consumer research process that ultimately will lead a consumer to the fashion e-retailer’s site to make a purchase.
“Non-brand terms are at the beginning of the sales cycle in paid search and generate awareness for you,” she says. When New York & Company runs a non-brand paid search ad for white chino pants, for example, shoppers doing research see ads from the retailer and other merchants and learn about brands, prices, sales and other factors, she adds. Many then will search using brand keywords as they get deeper into their research, having determined the brand in which they’re most interested after the initial research phase using broader keywords.
Non-brand keywords also are important to attract shoppers who are looking for gifts as opposed to shoppers with very specific intentions, and to e-retailers who serve a niche, says Broussard of Golfballs.com.
“Terms like ‘personalized golf balls’ and ‘monogrammed golf balls’ are among the most profitable for us. They don’t have to have ‘Titleist’ or ‘Callaway’ brands in order to be successful because they center on a product category, a niche,” Broussard says.
Category-specific terms generally perform very well around gifting times, like Father’s Day or Christmas, he says. Also, price-sensitive shoppers frequently type in non-brand keywords—they know they want the category but are not sure how much they want to spend, he says. “So they start with the general to lead them to more specific information on a web site,” he adds.
8. Ranking shoppers
Online marketers are accustomed to measuring the value of paid search keywords and ad copy. But what about the value of shoppers coming to an e-commerce site via paid search?
An e-retailer can create an engagement score that ranks shoppers based on how they interact with the e-commerce site and then associates that activity with the keywords that brought them to the site, says Kevin Amos, vice president of strategic planning at Impaqt.
“Assign a value to page views, reading e-catalogs, signing up for an e-newsletter, and all important activities. Perhaps a page view gets 5 points, an e-mail capture may get 200 points, and so on,” Amos explains. “Then, add up all the points for shoppers and give the shoppers an engagement score, and you now can assign very precise values to both shoppers and the keywords they used.”
Marketers or their search marketing firms can track shoppers by keyword through web analytics, creating reports on shoppers’ activities to be scored and evaluated by in-house or search firm staff, Amos says.
“Retailers need to start looking at visitors and their behavior, not just tests that show a one-shot view of someone coming in to pick something up or not,” Amos says. “Once you know which engines and keywords produce customers with the highest engagement scores, then you can place search ads based on what you want shoppers to be doing: viewing five or more pages, visiting certain product category pages, signing up for an e-newsletter, and more. This will make pay-per-click campaigns even more successful.”
9. Seeking help
Sometimes e-retailers need to know when to raise their hands and ask for help. For Luggage Online, managing paid search simply got to be too much. With so many keywords, increased competition, increased cost per click and the intensifying focus by search engines on keyword relevance, paid search became a task that required outside help, the e-retailer’s Jacobsen says.
So the merchant in January began working with NetElixir, which now handles all aspects of paid search. “They can do what we could not: monitor the campaign on a daily basis, uncover positive and negative trends as they happen, and act quickly,” Jacobsen says. “I just couldn’t keep up with it anymore, and that created too much of a lag to act fast enough.”
Jacobsen first considered hiring someone full-time to do nothing but manage paid search in house, but it didn’t work out.
“We weren’t able to find someone with the skills and expertise we thought were needed to manage the campaign. So I saw two options: train someone for this position or find a company that has the experience to take this on from Day One,” he says. “Now I feel we are getting more for our money by outsourcing. I don’t know that one person in house could do the detailed work the search firm is doing for us. A search firm has a large bank of experience, systems and tools in place to be more efficient than we ever could be.”
Jacobsen points to cost per click as a yardstick of success. He says cost per click increased during the last quarter of 2007 and credits the search firm with bringing the cost back to the level it was at before the increase.
Even when a search firm is doing well, it does require oversight—an e-retailer executive or team must play the pivotal role, Jacobsen adds.
“The day-to-day tasks are off my plate, and now I can dig in to the weekly reports, which have much more information,” he says. “Being able to look at things from a top-level view frees your mind to make better decisions while the firm is the one doing the heavy lifting.”
Freed from keyword and copy creation and routine monitoring, Jacobsen now has more time to strategize, he explains. “I now can better see where we need to act,” he says, “and I can focus NetElixir on getting cost per click down, for example, or driving more traffic on particular days. We’re working well together.”
10. Getting a second opinion
Something new has bubbled up at search marketing firm Apogee Search. It has been receiving requests from e-retailers who already have search marketing firms or handle paid search in house to take a hard look at how the other firm or in-house team is performing.
“We’re starting to see merchants call us to look under the hood and do a paid search audit or come in and give their paid search programs a tune-up,” says Apogee’s Leake. “Some retailers are specifically saying they’re not looking to switch their vendor, but they want us to tell them what their vendor should be doing.”
Under these circumstances, Leake says Apogee examines numerous elements of a paid search program, including the number of keywords, how tests are conducted, underlying metrics and overall performance.
To ensure paid search programs are on the right course, Leake advises e-retailers it is best to have at least one person in house who knows the marketing strategy well.
“If you have someone who has run paid search before, you have someone who can point out when a vendor may be on the wrong track, for instance,” he says. “And you have a failsafe, someone who can take over the reins if there are problems with a vendor. We’re seeing more clients that have someone in house with a fair amount of familiarity with paid search.”
bill@verticalwebmedia.com
