ReachLocal newest offer, Reach Retargeting. Keyword level retargeting coupled with site level retargeting.
The question went from “What is search retargeting?” to “Where can I get it?” and finally “How do I take my search retargeting campaign to the next level?” While there are far too many topics to address in one post, let’s take a look at the first, and most important, component: the keyword lists.
Since search retargeting relies heavily on keyword lists to determine which consumers to target and which to ignore, starting the campaign using the right keyword lists makes a world of difference in how fast a search retargeting campaign reaches desired performance.
Many advertisers think that matching their SEM list is the best way to generate a keyword list, and indeed, it’s a good place to start. However, it’s important for marketers to understand that search retargeting is an extension of SEM, and keyword lists must scale beyond SEM for search retargeting campaigns.
Let’s consider the consumer funnel compared to corresponding ad targeting strategies. Interest based targeting is at the top of the funnel and typically powers brand awareness campaigns. As we move down the funnel we come to the mid to lower funnel targeting strategies, which tend to support targeted brand awareness and direct response-based campaigns.
As you can see, search retargeting sits mid-funnel where as search marketing and site retargeting represent lower-funnel strategies that have the most precise and narrow audience sets.
To run a search retargeting campaign, a search retargeting partner needs to cookie a user and then target them again once they find them across their display media.
This means that there could be a gap of minutes, hours or even days between when a user performs a search and when the search retargeting partner actually sees that user again and is able to show them the relevant ad.
Since SEM campaigns target users on the next page following the search, they need to drive them to the advertiser’s page right away. If they don’t, game over. As a result, SEM campaigns tend to target users who are ready to convert in the next few minutes.
Let’s take Best Buy, a large electronics retailer, as an example. An SEM campaign for Best Buy might be targeting the term “Best Buy 50 inch Sony plasma TV sale.” This user is likely to convert in a small window of time, as he/she clearly knows exactly what they’re looking for and even the store they’re looking to buy from.
Conclusion: If a search retargeting company were to target users who searched for this term, they’d be showing an ad to someone who has most likely already converted and would therefore be wasting ad impressions, and more importantly ad dollars.
To run a successful search retargeting campaign, the advertiser needs to target keywords that indicate when a user is in a purchase or consideration mindset, but hasn’t made up his or her mind just yet. As a result, it’s important to target terms that wouldn’t necessarily be included in an SEM campaign due to the example shown above.
From Frost Prioleau, Search & Display, August 2011
Using the example above, a user searching for “plasma TV comparison” or “online plasma TV store” is someone Best Buy should definitely target. While the user might be a week away from converting, Best Buy should get in front of them during the consideration set, so that the brand is top of mind further down the purchasing funnel.
Conclusion: By limiting keywords to a brand’s SEM list, the advertiser might miss out on engaging consumers during the consideration phase, and pushing new customers through the funnel.
Marketers and their partners must work together to prune the advertiser’s SEM list and they must utilize a keyword generation tool that takes into account mid and upper funnel terms. It’s not just a semantic issue. This has ramifications for strategy.
Digital agencies and brand marketers need to be smarter about crafting and researching target terms that might be deemed too mid or upper funnel for an SEM campaign.
The goal of search retargeting is to take users at that stage in their decision-making and drive them to a specific advertiser or product. That means driving them down the funnel, and the right keywords can be the right fuel for the journey.
These days, most business owners and entrepreneurs are aware that they need to incorporate the internet and its associated strategies to remain competitive and indeed, simply to remain in business at all. However, after years at the cutting edge of internet marketing and assisting clients from small business to multi-national corporate organisations, I am still surprised just how many of them consider their internet strategies to be separate from their business’ marketing strategy and, indeed their overall business plan.
Internet marketing does not exist separately to your other business lead generation and customer service models. It should co-exist and complement every other marketing exercise you do. Similarly, there is little point having a fantastic and highly effective lead generation strategy to your website, if you fail to pick up the phone when all your new clients call to buy from you. Believe it or not, I have seen this happen.
When it comes to devising your business plan and incorporating internet marketing as part of it, it pays to go back and revisit the basics in business, as these indeed are important. Revisiting the basic business formula will help you determine which online strategies to use.
The most basic aim of business – any business – is to make a profit. If yours doesn’t aim to make a profit, then it’s not a business, it’s a hobby or a charity. Simple as that. Notice I said aim to make a profit. Obviously not all businesses do make a profit.
I like to consider that business consists of five main elements:
As long as you concentrate on these five elements to your business, you should expect a profit at the end of the month. When we put them together, what we come up with is in effect the formula for running a successful business.
If we take the number of leads we get each month and multiply that by the conversion rate, we get we get the number of customers we have. Then, by multiplying this number by the average number of transactions they each do and multiply that number by the average number of dollars they spend, we arrive at our total average turnover. Then, by multiplying that number by the margin, we get our profit.
This is what that formula looks like:
Leads x Conversion Rate = Customers x No. of Transactions x Average Dollar Sale = Turnover x Margin = Profit.
By concentrating on and improving each of the elements to this basic formula, you will dramatically improve your eventual profit. How you go about doing that depends largely upon your own personal desires as well as the industry you are operating in. For instance, you may not enjoy door knocking, so don’t use this strategy to gain more leads. Similarly, you wouldn’t use TV advertising if you wanted to reach dog owners in your suburb. Nor would you consider using Google AdWords if you wanted to reach pensioners who played Bingo in your neighbourhood.
This is the formula you need to always keep in mind when planning, carrying out and monitoring your internet marketing strategy, that forms part of your business plan. Ask yourself how your internet marketing is affecting the number of clients placING enquiries, whether they buy from you and the amount they spend each time.
This is exactly what I did when I first become involved in the world of internet marketing to grow my own business. My first experience with pay-per-click (PPC) marketing was during my efforts to ramp up bookings for my corporate magic business. At the time, I was using the traditional methods to market my business and reach my target market, such as the local print directory for Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, visits to agents, sending out flyers as well as anything else I could conjure up to generate bookings so I could feed my family and pay the bills. My marketing efforts were having a small impact on my bottom line, so much so that I wasn’t able to survive. Then I came across the Yahoo Search Marketing Platform and everything changed. Within a month of putting ads up on the search engines my business was profitable! Almost immediately I began generating a steady flow of enquiries and bookings and best of all I didn’t need to knock on doors or lick stamps. All I needed to do was wait!
GitHub: Software description: a software to manage books in the computer (C#). →
You know that most all of your customers have a smart phone.
As you’re trying to figure out ways to reach new customers and engage potential customers one of the platforms that many businesses are not tapping into is advertising on smart phones.
Small businesses are clearly on board with online marketing overall, but interest in mobile is up sharply, according to Ad-ology Research. More than 20 percent of small business decision-makers say they plan to commit more resources to mobile marketing in 2012, up from the 12 percent who said the same last year.
Smartphone advertising could include advertising on mobile web sites that are frequented by mobile users. Advertising could also take the form of txting customers (or potential customers) who have given you permission to text them.
“Marketing opportunities using mobile devices are rapidly emerging just as they did for the Internet many years ago,” said C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research. “Small business owners are increasingly connected themselves and recognize mobile as a viable way to effectively and efficiently reach potential customers,” Smith said.
Mobile advertising is not for every business, however, it’s something every business might want to consider.
Consider a) who your current customers are and if you should reach them on their cell phones b) who are your prospective customers and should you reach them in a mobile environment.
If you decide to leverage more mobile advertising, you can then work with an expert in mobile advertising to help you come up with a strategy and plan of action to boost sales.
Each program I run generates over 80 calls a month and most provide in the neighborhood of 150 to 215 per month. These are not sales calls; they are prequalified potential customers to that business. The programs prequalify customers on two levels, Geographic area, and product the customer is looking to rent.
Think to yourself, what would an additional 50, or 75 or 100 calls mean to my business on a monthly basis? How would this change my business? Would I be able to take my company to the next level?
Want proof? Please call Chris Kligora direct at 720.427.3707 to set up an appointment, I will come to your business and talk with you about what I do for others and we will see if it’s a match for your business. If you are outside the Denver metro area, I can still help! We can set up an online meeting to discuss your business needs.
You have landed on the right place. I have been helping SMB’s (Small & Medium business) create new impactful marketing strategies for over 14 years. I work with mostly businesses in Denver CO. However, with the power of GOTO meetings, I can work with SMB’s across the country.
I will sit down with you at your office or mine, and do a needs analyses with you to determine exactly what it is you’re after. New Patients, Branding, Social Media, Email Marketing, Yellow Pages, TV, Radio, Etc. Together, we will set goals, checkpoints, and realistic expectations. I have no magic bullet, nor am I a miracle worker. I know the Denver Market and my expertise will allow your business to move in the direction of your goals.
I think we can all agree with the advent of DVR’s, Satellite Radio, and the Internet…marketing has become increasingly more difficult. The technologies available to today’s consumer have pushed traditional CPM’s through the roof!
Internet advertising has become a cornerstone of most successful business, and has allowed flexibility of targeting just the clients that your business is looking for. Search allows you to prequalify your potential customer before you pay a dime to be in front of them. Display has allowed for a customer to target a specific demographic to brand to. Social media, allows your current customers to keep in touch with your business and share with their friends.
Establishing a partnership with each customer is a prime focus of my business. Often times I talk to customers who have been promised the world, and as soon as the contract has been signed, they disappear. Partnerships should last years. I will give you the customer service you deserve!
Orthodontics was the first recognized specialty field within dentistry. Orthodontists are dental specialists in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of orthodontic problems who have completed a minimum of two academic years of study in an accredited orthodontic residency program. Only those dentists who have completed this training may call themselves “orthodontists,” and only orthodontists may be members of the American Association of Orthodontists.
Specializing on one focus is a major advantage to a patient with a very specific problem. That stated, orthodontics often struggle with how to best market their practice. Often times the old faithful yellow pages is the extent of the marketing that they do, after all that is how most practices where established. The market penetration in any given area (like above) shows a need to set your office apart from the competition.
Times have changed and firms that specifically market orthodontics have popped up all over, the two that most Doctors recognize are Orthosesame(TM) and Televox(TM). An amazing website is only the start.
SEM will allow you the ability to qualify your potential patient based on many different criteria, you can use keywords that define a specific vertical of your business that you want to be more aggressive in, you can use geographic locators or radius’s just to pull customers from certain areas of town, or you can choose specific engines to further refine the demographic you are looking for. Search engine marketing is a great fit for a orthodontic practice.
Applying a search engine marketing campaign to your already “conversion friendly” site will allow your orthodontic practice to reach new levels as far as new patient acquisition. In the Denver area, orthodontics offices don’t saturate the area as much as dental offices, but then again, the client base is much smaller. This makes it even more important to make sure that your orthodontic practice is an available option to EVRY new patient looking.
