One area of marketing that remains strong despite the economic downturn is search marketing. However, as our recent “Unlocking the B2B Web Analytics Black Box” study revealed, there are still major challenges to measuring search marketing success for B2B. The biggest one: conversion attribution. “Last click” tools just don’t provide the full story.
Watch my recent interview with WebProNews to learn more about understanding web analytics and the best tools to measure success for B2B.
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B2B Online Marketing, B2B Search Marketing, B2B Web Analytics | Tagged: conversion tracking, ppc, search marketing ROI, web analytics | 
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Posted by Ben Hanna
By S. Ryan DeShazer, Global Director of Search Marketing, GyroHSR
I’ve been known to tell clients that, unless you plan on shutting down your corporate Web site, you cannot ignore search. It’s essential to online existence to be findable. In fact, there’s a great quote I use regularly in workshops and new business presentations. It’s simple, to the point, and perfectly brilliant:
“If you cannot be searched, you do not exist.”
For the new entrant to B2B search marketing, the challenge can be daunting. There is so much to consider, and depending on the industry, a bevy of sophisticated competitors are waiting to eat your lunch. But search is essential to any organization’s viability, so you must overcome any fear and get started. Now.
And while effective strategies first incorporate business objectives before turning to tactics, it should be noted that in search there’s really only one tactic: search! Forget this nonsense that either paid or organic search is preferable over the other. Organic results and paid ads share the same page real estate, and to the user there is little on-the-fly distinction between the two. Eye-scanning studies have confirmed this: page placement is more important in determining which listings get attention than whether they are paid or organic.
The Trick: Pick Fights You Can Win
You’ve no doubt seen a graphic similar to the one below before. The theory of the long-tail, in this case visually representing a client’s search keyword-referred traffic for a given time period. The long tail is a very exciting reality and represents a chance for almost every advertiser to “pick a fight they can win.” Essentially, keyword phrases that are queried can be broken into three categories: “head,” “torso,” and “tail” terms.
“Head” terms are general (and, therefore, typically very competitive) terms that relate to the particular industry. “Torso” terms are more specific and receive fewer queries. “Tail” terms are those that are so specific that they receive very few searches, but when added together amount to a large percentage of overall search-referred visitors.
The Key to Winning: Keyword Optimization
Identify which of these hundreds or thousands of keywords (head, torso, and tail) your company can generate positive returns from. Securing the top position for the most popular keyword phrase in the industry isn’t always enough to ensure success. That positioning has to drive an appropriate response among your target audiences.
Start with paid search to cast a wide net and quickly identify which combinations of keyword phrases, ad units and landing pages yield the greatest rates of response. Paid search, unlike organic, can operate fluidly in response to changing market dynamics or advertiser missteps. What if a keyword doesn’t generate the response that was hypothesized? Re-script the ad, change out the landing page, reduce the keyword-level bid or even remove that keyword from the portfolio altogether. With a bit of diligence, it can be determined with statistical certainty which combinations are working. Organic search takes much more elbow grease, and patience, to move the needle.
Once armed with that insight, bring the top-performing combination from paid search into the fold for optimization and claim as much of the “free” search traffic as possible. Recent statistics show that organic listings receive approximately 75 percent of all search click-throughs, so you’re leaving a lot on the table by not taking this extra step. Remember to optimize only for top performing paid search keyword terms and you’ve found some fights you can win.
Over time, less-sophisticated competition will continue to bloody each other’s noses with high-cost paid campaigns and uninformed organic programs. By following this approach, you can side-step those battles and stay focused on what matters most: results.
S. Ryan DeShazer
Global Director of Search Marketing, GyroHSR
Ryan DeShazer is a seasoned digital marketing professional, having served entrepreneurial stints at pay-per-click (PPC) marketing firm Clix Marketing and again as co-owner of interactive boutique NOEINK. His current responsibilities at GyroHSR include developing and advancing the firm’s search engine marketing (SEM) capabilities.
5 Comments | B2B Search Marketing | Permalink
Posted by Dianne Molina
By S. Ryan DeShazer, Global Director of Search Marketing, GyroHSR
What I’ve always enjoyed about being a B2B search marketer is the inherent complexity involved in persuading the business buyer. Not only do communications need to speak to multiple stakeholders to the purchase decision, but those stakeholders typically happen to be pretty intelligent people, holding prominent roles in their organizations. Gimmicks definitely will not work here.
So the challenge to B2B search marketers is in determining how to secure multiple buy-ins from a finite and intelligent group, overcome a lengthy consideration process, while mitigating fears over high costs and risks associated with the transaction.
Nobody said this was easy work.
The trick to maintain your sanity, while delivering positive returns on ad spend is to focus on things that are under your control. In B2B search marketing, that means you have to do things a bit differently than in B2C. To succeed, you must:
1) Recognize that business purchase consideration cycles aren’t always linear
2) Let micro B2B conversions show the way
3) Capitalize on navigational search
4) Draw qualitative conclusions from quantitative data
This is huge. B2B marketers tend to over-think programs and believe that their audiences fit neatly into pre-defined, academic categories of Awareness, Consideration, Negotiation, Purchase. In my experience, no B2B transaction actually maps to this type of consideration cycle. B2B transactions follow myriad paths to completion. The only commonality among B2B transactions is that, at some point, a company became aware of another’s offerings and decided to ultimately purchase.
Not very helpful insight when planning a search program. So, what are B2B search marketers to do?
Not everything has to be about the purchase. Introduce a call-to-action that focuses just on the ultimate transaction and you will lose 95% of your potential audience. What is more impactful, is introducing offers or points of engagement that directly address individual stages of the consideration cycle. Think of these as “micro conversions,” or opt-ins that map to earlier consideration.
For example, online ROI calculators can often be the perfect “offer” made to those considering a purchase, comparing alternatives, and attempting to determine the payback period of a capital investment. Provide website visitors with tools to better inform their purchase decision, and engagement with your website and brand will increase. Investigate what your competitive set is doing and see where you can borrow, and best their offers.
Navigational search, or search terms that are queried specifically to navigate directly to a particular brand’s website, are huge opportunities as well. In our experience, a disproportionately large number of search-driven conversions will come from brand-term queries.
It makes sense too. Anytime there is complexity in the purchase decision process, you can anticipate that a brand preference emerges as the transaction draws nearer. We see evidence of this as search-referred traffic becomes more brand-focused over the life of the visitor’s website touches. In fact, we’ve invested in analytics technologies that specifically help us to investigate and understand the holistic chain of search events that lead to an ultimate conversion.
Clients don’t always like focusing on branded terms as part of their Search programs, but they’re essential to efficiently capturing and converting web audiences.
Marketing is not formulaic. It cannot be solved by mathematics, nor can it be run by software alone. Human intelligence and oversight are needed in order for marketing to ensure the brand realizes its full market potential. The raw numbers can, however, help to enhance our own understanding of the marketplace dynamics.
What is the search data telling us that we weren’t aware of previously? Have our target audiences responded differently to our messaging than we originally hypothesized? Has our offer failed to entice action? If so, why has it failed? Can we test alternative messaging to see whether it’s the messaging or the offer itself?
Data can lead us to either conclusions or more questions. Where we’re taken to more questions, we follow-up with more hypotheses.
These four insights can help your search programs become far more comprehensive and relevant to B2B audiences. Your efforts and diligence will help round out a more complete view of your market, that in turn can be used to help establish a long-term competitive advantage. Ultimately, you will be engaging and converting more search-referred prospects than ever before.
S. Ryan DeShazer
Global Director of Search Marketing, GyroHSR
Ryan DeShazer is a seasoned digital marketing professional, having served entrepreneurial stints at pay-per-click (PPC) marketing firm Clix Marketing and again as co-owner of interactive boutique NOEINK. His current responsibilities at GyroHSR include developing and advancing the firm’s search engine marketing (SEM) capabilities.
No Comments » | B2B Search Marketing | Tagged: b2b marketers, ppc, search marketing | Permalink
Posted by Dianne Molina
At Business.com, we’re dedicated to providing high quality traffic to our advertisers.
As such, we’re very pleased to announce that Business.com is one of the first four pay-per-click industry leaders, including Microsoft (adCenter and Atlas Media Console), to earn click quality accreditation from the Media Rating Council (MRC) certifying full compliance with the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Click Measurement Guidelines. See our press release here.
The MRC accreditation means Business.com advertisers can be assured that the clicks they pay for on Business.com are generated by real people with a real interest in the product or service being advertised.
Business.com has been an active member of the IAB’s Click Measurement Working Group over the last three years, working with other industry leaders to finalize a clear, standardized definition of a “click” and how clicks are measured and counted, including the identification of fraudulent or other invalid clicks. Published in May 2009, the IAB Click Measurement Guidelines also include auditing and certification recommendation for organizations involved in performance-based advertising. To earn MRC click quality accreditation, a company must undergo a through MRC-drive audit of its operations and review of the findings by the MRC Audit Committee. Once granted, click quality accreditation by the MRC certifies that an organization has provided full and complete information to the MRC regarding all details of its operation, conducts its processing and reporting substantially in accordance with representations to its clients and in compliance with IAB guidelines, and submits to annual audits of its systems by CPA firms engaged by the MRC.
Suffice to say, receiving MRC click quality accreditation is a lot of work but well worth the effort as part of our commitment to click quality and good measurement practices. While Business.com is one of the very first to earn this accreditation, keep your eye out for more announcements as other leading companies offering performance-based advertising commit to full compliance with the IAB’s Click Measurement Guidelines.
No Comments » | B2B Search Marketing, Business.com News | Tagged: ppc, search marketing ROI | Permalink
Posted by Ben Hanna
Oil and water. Mars and Venus. Search and branding.
Not long ago (or still?), brand marketing and search marketing were viewed as two polar opposites in the marketing mix. Many diehard pros specializing in one or the other of these areas still struggle to understand find value in, or even imagine, using search marketing to build or reinforce a brand message.
“The 10 blue links of the search results page are simply not a worthwhile medium for building brands,” say the brand marketers.
“Who cares about building brand awareness and preference when we’re driving conversions!” say the search marketers.
We address this debate for B2B brand marketing and B2B search marketing pros in *NEW* Business.com whitepaper “Building B2B Brands through Search Marketing“.
Here’s a quick summary:
The purpose of this whitepaper is to provide a straightforward overview of how to build your business-to-business (B2B) brand through search marketing, and to provide several best practice tips for finding and leveraging brand-building opportunities in the context of search marketing. Specifically, we cover the three fundamental ways paid search and SEO connect with B2B brand campaigns:
1. Brand initiatives provide key inputs for search marketing campaigns
2. Search marketing delivers an impactful, branded experience
3. Search marketing impressions, CTR and conversion rates are affected by brand campaigns
And, in the process, review the mounting research supporting the impact of a strong B2B brand presence in search results on search marketing ROI.
We don’t get into the “which is better” debate that branding pros and search marketers so often fall into. As you review the research it quickly becomes apparent that this debate is a waste of time - brand marketer and search marketers absolutely need each other to deliver the best possible ROI for their companies.
Visit http://www.business.com/info/building_b2b_brands.asp today to get your copy of “Building B2B Brands through Search Marketing”.
And once you’ve had a chance to read through it, we’d love to hear your impressions below.
No Comments » | B2B Search Marketing, Business.com News | Tagged: branding, marketing mix | Permalink
Posted by Ben Hanna
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