PPC by Computer Doctors!
No SEM Value Meals Sold Here
05/21/2009
by John McCarthy Director, SEO - ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE
The other day I followed up with a company that I spoke to
earlier about creating a paid search campaign. This
company, located in southern California, is an original
equipment manufacturer that primarily sells to other
businesses within the state. While this company could sell
their products outside of California, the delivery costs of the
product make such sales opportunities cost prohibitive.
Upon taking my call, the general manager was extremely
ecstatic. He informed me they had selected another agency
and launched a search engine optimization campaign.
Within 30 days, this firm already had achieved top 10
rankings for many of the company’s keywords, including
several #1 rankings.
One might imagine I would be less than ecstatic at this
point. Not so. Although I did not get the sale, I shared my
congratulations and asked what keywords had noteworthy
rankings. He quickly rattled off “city1” keyword, “city2”
keyword, “city3” keyword and so forth. Apparently the entire
SEO campaign of about 50 terms consisted of geo-targeted
keywords. I immediately launched my web browser and
validated the general manager’s findings. He was
absolutely correct – every keyword he provided was on the
first page of Google with many keywords ranking #1.
As I stared at Google’s search results, I realized the page
looked really different. The first thing I noticed was there
were little to no paid search listings. Then I looked up at the
volume of search results: 9,950 pages. “There must be a
mistake,” I thought while re-entering the search query.
Again, Google returned 9,950 pages.
I then asked the general manager a jaw dropping question,
“What is the monthly search volume for the ‘city1’
keyword?” All of the sudden the once ecstatic general
manager fell silent.
I quickly fired up Google Adwords’ Keyword Tool and found
the answer “Not Enough Data”.
It turns out this company had implemented a search engine
optimization campaign targeting keywords with no search
volume. Yikes! While Google’s keyword tool is not perfect
by any means, it is usually within a reasonable ballpark.
After analyzing the 100 geo-targeted keywords this
company was targeting, only 4 keywords registered any
search volume on Google Adwords’ Keyword Tool.
I then reiterated to the general manager why my
recommendation to implement a paid search advertising
campaign was best for his company. I stated that 15 of his
general keywords had over 100,000 queries per month and
others 20,000-50,000 queries per month.
I explained how we could target California businesses by
employing IP targeting and acquire 12-15% of that search
traffic. Furthermore we could implement contextual
advertising as well as display advertising and place text ads
and banner ads on local sites like the Los Angeles Times
along with business blogs visited by the company’s
customers. Under such a campaign we could implement all
sorts of testing scenarios to maximize conversions such as
A/B testing, multivariate, day parting strategies, and bid
position by location strategies.
The current bids ranged from $1.15 to $3.25. We estimated
the campaign would need a monthly budget of $4,750 a
month to target California businesses. While this budget
was twice what he agreed to pay the current agency, the
manager agreed the proposed campaign would be at least
100 times more targeted than existing efforts.
The general manager thanked me for the call. He wasn’t
sure he had a large enough media budget but he would
start by looking in his SEO contract for a termination
provision. As I hung up the phone, it occurred to me that
sales professionals are not talking to clients about
suitability. Granted this is not the sexy part of solution
selling – but nonetheless the responsible part.
Sales professionals should ask clients about their
immediate and long term revenue goals, making sure the
solution fits the business needs. This applies to all traffic
generation campaigns - SEO, paid search, affiliate
marketing, display advertising, just as it does for website
design. If we fail to act like responsible sales professionals
we will simply become order takers and this does not
appeal to me. Honestly, I for one really don’t ever want to
say, “Would you like a side of social media with your SEO
value meal today?”
05/21/2009
by John McCarthy Director, SEO - ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE
The other day I followed up with a company that I spoke to
earlier about creating a paid search campaign. This
company, located in southern California, is an original
equipment manufacturer that primarily sells to other
businesses within the state. While this company could sell
their products outside of California, the delivery costs of the
product make such sales opportunities cost prohibitive.
Upon taking my call, the general manager was extremely
ecstatic. He informed me they had selected another agency
and launched a search engine optimization campaign.
Within 30 days, this firm already had achieved top 10
rankings for many of the company’s keywords, including
several #1 rankings.
One might imagine I would be less than ecstatic at this
point. Not so. Although I did not get the sale, I shared my
congratulations and asked what keywords had noteworthy
rankings. He quickly rattled off “city1” keyword, “city2”
keyword, “city3” keyword and so forth. Apparently the entire
SEO campaign of about 50 terms consisted of geo-targeted
keywords. I immediately launched my web browser and
validated the general manager’s findings. He was
absolutely correct – every keyword he provided was on the
first page of Google with many keywords ranking #1.
As I stared at Google’s search results, I realized the page
looked really different. The first thing I noticed was there
were little to no paid search listings. Then I looked up at the
volume of search results: 9,950 pages. “There must be a
mistake,” I thought while re-entering the search query.
Again, Google returned 9,950 pages.
I then asked the general manager a jaw dropping question,
“What is the monthly search volume for the ‘city1’
keyword?” All of the sudden the once ecstatic general
manager fell silent.
I quickly fired up Google Adwords’ Keyword Tool and found
the answer “Not Enough Data”.
It turns out this company had implemented a search engine
optimization campaign targeting keywords with no search
volume. Yikes! While Google’s keyword tool is not perfect
by any means, it is usually within a reasonable ballpark.
After analyzing the 100 geo-targeted keywords this
company was targeting, only 4 keywords registered any
search volume on Google Adwords’ Keyword Tool.
I then reiterated to the general manager why my
recommendation to implement a paid search advertising
campaign was best for his company. I stated that 15 of his
general keywords had over 100,000 queries per month and
others 20,000-50,000 queries per month.
I explained how we could target California businesses by
employing IP targeting and acquire 12-15% of that search
traffic. Furthermore we could implement contextual
advertising as well as display advertising and place text ads
and banner ads on local sites like the Los Angeles Times
along with business blogs visited by the company’s
customers. Under such a campaign we could implement all
sorts of testing scenarios to maximize conversions such as
A/B testing, multivariate, day parting strategies, and bid
position by location strategies.
The current bids ranged from $1.15 to $3.25. We estimated
the campaign would need a monthly budget of $4,750 a
month to target California businesses. While this budget
was twice what he agreed to pay the current agency, the
manager agreed the proposed campaign would be at least
100 times more targeted than existing efforts.
The general manager thanked me for the call. He wasn’t
sure he had a large enough media budget but he would
start by looking in his SEO contract for a termination
provision. As I hung up the phone, it occurred to me that
sales professionals are not talking to clients about
suitability. Granted this is not the sexy part of solution
selling – but nonetheless the responsible part.
Sales professionals should ask clients about their
immediate and long term revenue goals, making sure the
solution fits the business needs. This applies to all traffic
generation campaigns - SEO, paid search, affiliate
marketing, display advertising, just as it does for website
design. If we fail to act like responsible sales professionals
we will simply become order takers and this does not
appeal to me. Honestly, I for one really don’t ever want to
say, “Would you like a side of social media with your SEO
value meal today?”
Head Office:
2669 Tungsten Ct
San Bernardino, CA 92408
(909) 991-7709
solution@computer-doctors.org
2669 Tungsten Ct
San Bernardino, CA 92408
(909) 991-7709
solution@computer-doctors.org
All rights reserved.
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