Over the past few years working with many clients to understand how effective their pay-per-click campaigns are (and often figure out how to get them to perform better), I have compiled my top 10 list of ways that many marketers blow their budgets on PPC.

1. Ignoring Match Type Options – When you just purchase key phrases, without applying any match type, you inherit the ‘broad match’ settings which means that your ad shows up on the results page when any of the words in the phrase are searched on.

This has the two-pronged negative effect of either driving unqualified clicks or driving down your CTR which in turn drives up your CPC.

2. Ignoring Landing Pages – Many marketers feel that creating custom landing pages is just too much work.  Instead they send all pay-per-click traffic to their home page.  This is tremendously frustrating to those visitors who arrive at your site after just searching on specific words on the search engine.  They now have to begin their search again to find what they are looking for on your site.  You will see that many leave your site immediately, unwilling to search again.

3. Not Implementing Conversion Tracking Code – I am still amazed at the amount of companies who just won’t add conversion tracking code to their thank you page (the code provided by the search engines or provided by your analytics package).  Without this information, you can pretty much guarantee that you are throwing away a large percentage of your pay-per-click budget.

4. Bidding Too Little for Keywords – This may sound strange, but if you don’t pay enough for a keyword you will find yourself at best ‘beneath the fold’ (which is disappointing because many people don’t ever scroll down) or worse, on page 2 or 20 of the results.  This is just one more way of driving up your cost per click by driving down your CTR.

5. Using the ‘Set it and Forget it’ Mentality – This may be my biggest pet peeve.  Managing successful pay-per-click campaigns is not a one-time task.
Effective marketers pay attention (analyze, modify and improve) campaigns often.  Campaigns that are dormant, throw money away uselessly by continuing to spend money on keywords or ads that don’t work and don’t optimize spending on what works best.

6. Ignoring Negative Keywords – Unless your offering is free, thinking about applying negative keywords to your campaign is probably a good idea.

I could be wrong, but the last time I checked Omniture was not a free analytic solution.

7. Ignoring Ad Scheduling – Although it takes a little more work to analyze your campaigns and determine when the conversions are happening, it is well worth it.  Armed with the knowledge that your conversions take place Monday – Wednesday between 9 am – 4pm, allows you to modify your campaign so you spend more of your budget when the traffic that you want to attract is online (and pay less for traffic that does not convert).

8. Not Breaking Out Content Targeted Traffic – Okay, I was wrong earlier, this is actually my biggest pet peeve.  Unless you create a separate campaign with separate, unique destination URLs for the Content Targeted traffic, it is very difficult (even impossible depending on what analytics package you are using)
to differentiate the search/search network traffic from the content targeted traffic.  And, even though you can pay less for the content targeted traffic without breaking it out into its own campaign, you still should take the time to break it out into its own campaign.  Because, what you may find is that the traffic may not be as qualified in terms of conversions (sales), but it may generate good leads that just need additional remarketing to eventually convert.  (And, you may find data that leads you to create specific Site Targeted campaigns that really perform great).

9. Ignoring Click-Fraud or Invalid Clicks – I know that researching to determine click fraud can be time consuming, and arguing with the search engines can be frustrating and potentially even a dead-end.  I am not saying that you should spend all of your time or focus on this, but I do think it is worth paying a
little attention.  ClicKTracks has a great Click Fraud report.  But, you must know when it is potentially click fraud versus just a poorly performing ad.

10. Ignoring the Quality Score – The quality score is definitely a moving target and it recently has changed again.  But, if you understand your quality scores by simply improving your ad or your landing page (or weeding out non-performing keywords), you can dramatically lower your cost per click.  And, if you do this across the board for all of your OK or Poor quality keywords, the savings can make a huge difference.

Hi,

I am basically interested for business reasons. I had written to you about the offer a few days back. Perhaps, you never got the mail in the first place. Anyhow, here is the deal. I found your sitehttp://endlessplain.com/ really enchanting and would like to buy a number of text-links on your site. Let me know if you would like to hear more of this.

Best regards, Tom

This was an email that I received last week. ‘Tom’ wanted to buy text-links on this site.  Yet, despite him finding the site to be ‘really enchanting,’ he couldn’t be bothered to add in the name of one person that works here to target it to. Based on his note and the fact that he didn’t send an earlier one, despite claiming to, this looks just like a typical form letter sent out to hundreds of site owners at a time.  There’s nothing to make me want to check out his offer, even if we did sell text links on this, which we absolutely do not.

This wasn’t the first email last week to give me cause to shake my head in disbelief, and it most assuredly won’t be the last. In fact, last week we received an email to the info@ account that had us all shaking our heads.

xxx is a well established search marketing firm seeking a partner for a strategic alliance or merger opportunity. Our firm is headquartered in xxx and is organized into two operating units.

Our Internet marketing services group offers advanced search marketing solutions for sophisticated Internet marketers. Our world class IMS team includes nationally recognized experts in the field. We have an international client base with spend rates well into six figures.

The second operating unit is a national yellow pages advertising agency with a stable, and geographically diverse, client base which includes a number of major national and global advertisers. The team offers both print and Internet yellow pages services for major advertisers with spend rates into seven figures.

We are open to discussing an alliance or merger with either or both operating units to attain immediate, and significant, revenue growth. Should you be interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact me to discuss the matter further via email or my personal cell phone number.

xxx CEO

Really, you want to merge with us? And the best way to do this is via a blind email? Given that it’d take you 2 seconds to go over to the team page and find out that Nan is the person that you needed to talk to?

Maybe, just maybe, if you’re wanting to talk about something as sensitive as a corporate merger, you’d at least call first to get her personal email address? After all, who’s to say that the email won’t instead go to someone else that’ll do something like write about it on the company blog?

Again, this comes off like a form letter.  There’s no talk about what would work with what we offer, what benefits each could generate from a merger or alliance, nothing.  Just a statement as to what they do.

Anyway Mr. CEO, if you’d like…I can put you in touch with Tom, he’d like to buy some text link ads on your site, and who knows, maybe he’d want a merger?

Recently, I moved into a second story condo after living the past 5 years in a house.  I am astounded at how loud my upstairs neighbors are.  Not ‘partying, playing loud music all the time’ loud, but more like ‘clompy, loud-walking’ loud.  Because of this, I’ve been very aware of how much noise I make.  I thought I was being a pretty considerate neighbor until I found out otherwise.

Apparently, my dogs have a favorite rumbunctious playtime every weekday morning – unbeknownst to me – when I blow-dry my hair.

Now, this has probably been going on for a few weeks and I just never realized it until the other day……until the day my hair dryer stopped working.

I’ve had this hair-dryer forever.  And it has always just worked.  But recently, there was just a split second delay when I turned it on.  And, every day since the delay has been getting little bit longer.  But it still works, it is just a matter of waiting (now) quite a few seconds for it to eventually turn on.  I am pretty sure that I am going to wait to replace the hair-dryer until it completely dies.

For some reason, I drew the strange parallel between my replacing the hair dryer, with how many companies view their analytics.  Sure…they, like me, may use their analytics everyday and they may be more than aware that there is something not quite right with the analytics tool they are using.  But, since it does the basic job, they feel no need to replace it with something that will do a better job.

Analytics to some companies are seen as boring and mundane as an everyday appliance like a hair-dryer.  Replacing an analytics package is not all that appealing.  At best, it involves some research -moving away from a tool that they are used to.  And at worst, it involves paying money for something that used to be free, learning a new system, and often creating a new culture (a data driven/data accepting culture) against some resistance.

Of course, I realize that using an electrical appliance that is not quite working is not only unwise but can be potentially unsafe (okay, I didn’t actually realize that until my husband mentioned it) just as using an outdated Web analytics tool can be unwise and unsafe (since you are probably making important spending decisions using bad data).  So, this weekend, I am off to get a new hair-dryer.  And if you decide that it is time to replace your broken analytics, please feel free to contact us.

The first presidential debate is tomorrow night which means we are now into the home stretch of the presidential election.  Are you registered to vote? Do you know where you’re polling place is located?  Have you made your decision as to who you’ll vote for?  What do you know about the vice presidential candidates?  What are Barack Obama and John McCain saying on the important issues?

These are some of the questions that Google attempts to help answer with a series of mapplets and other tools that are available for everyone’s use.  This post gives some details on what these mapplets and tools are.

First up is the Elections ’08 Map Gallery.  This is a very interesting set of maps that allow you to gather extensive information on a wide range of topics dealing with the election.  Among the topics areas that you can view are:

• Track the candidates on the campaign trail
• View the speeches by location that Obama and McCain have given throughout the election
• Predict the election results by selecting which candidate you think will win each state
• Visually see the life journey of both vice presidential candidates
• And much more

Google has also released a mapplet that allows users to gather 2008 US Voter Information for any area in the United States.  Just enter your address and you can see how many days you have to get registered to vote, links and phone numbers to get additional voter information for your area, where to vote (won’t be available until mid-October), and directions to get to your voting location.

This could be particularly valuable for organizations that are trying to register new voters.  After they get them registered, they can direct them to this mapplet to get directions to their voting location or even print out directions and give them to the newly registered voter.  Registering to vote is only the first step, so hopefully this can help increase voter turnout.

The last tool is Google In Quotes.  This is a tool that is in Google Labs, so it’s in its experimental stage at this point, but still provides very valuable information.  The tool pulls in quotes from stories that are linked to Google News.  The idea is to allow you to see the position that each candidate has on the various issues and read quotes from each candidate.

1. Spring Cleaning: I know your product/service is so cool/amazing/life-changing that every potential customer should have all of the details about it right now. But, that’s probably not in your best interest. Just as a clean house is more inviting than a junky one, so a clean, simple Web page is more inviting than a messy one.

2. Nobody Wants to Hear Your Life Story: Well, they might, but they usually prefer to ask for it. When you meet somebody new, you don’t want to scare them away by over-sharing. In the same way, don’t over-share on your homepage i.e. edit your text down to a minimum or use bullets to present it more visually. Use text more heavily on back pages so that users can “ask” you for more information by clicking on those links.

3. I Love You, But I Cannot Navigate Your Psyche: Sometimes we’re our own worst enemy. We make a new friend, but our personal quirks and fear of intimacy causes us to push that person away. Similarly, a new user can be impressed by our home page, but if they can’t find the links to get more information or to buy your product/service, they will get frustrated and move on. So, make your site navigation easy to find and even easier to use.

Last Friday, I received a copy of CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World by Tom Watson, (Wiley, Nov 10,2008). Given that we’ve been talking a lot on this blog lately about social networks, but not so much about nonprofits and cause marketing (at least I haven’t been), I was interested to pop open the covers and take a look inside.

The book contains 10 nicely segmented chapters, all dealing with different aspects of the impact of the wired / wireless world on philanthropy – touching on topics from Katrina response, to political movements, to micro-lending.

If you’re in the nonprofit world and haven’t yet taken advantage of the online space, then this book is full of great ammunition for you to take to your executives to persuade them that it’s the right thing to do. i.e…

Charities seeking to raise money through direct mail are known to pay a premium for each dollar raised from a brand new donor; the cost may be $1.30 or $1.50 to acquire each new dollar. While the money raised on Causes {a fundraising applicaion on Facebook – Simon} is small so far, the acquisition cost per public supporter is almost zero.

…and how about this quote discussing figures released by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement in 2006 talking about millenials (young Americans born after 1980)

30% told researchers they have boycotted a product in the last year “because of the conditions under which it was made or the values of the company that made it.”

When you consider other numbers and discussions in this book about the online connectivity of these millenials, it looks like a great opportunity for causes that can capture the imagination of these millenials.  On the other hand, it’s also an area of great concern for companies that have working practices that these millenials may deem questionable or worse.

One of the biggest changes that the online world has brought to philanthropy has been the increasing level of openness. In the past, you would send your money in to a charity, and that would be the last you’d hear of it (well, until the next request for cash came in).  These days, people can read about the actual people that benefit from their $25 micro-loan.  They can read about where their donations are actually being applied…following the story of the people or villages that benefit.

More than 58% of high net-worth individuals say they would give more to charity if they could determine their gift’s impact… But new markets are offering that opportunity to smaller donors as well… micro-philanthropists should be as respected as large-scale philanthropists.

Now, the book does make the point that $ ROI is relatively low for many of the causes discussed.  But, Watson does talk about the fact that engagement in this social media world is about much more than just dollars.  It’s also about getting people behind a cause in other ways, whether it’s to call their elected representatives or demonstrate in one way or another. I’ll leave the last word for the author, but please note that there’s a lot more in this book beyond what I’ve covered.

Will online social activism unleash a golden age for causes – for philanthropy, for activism, for citizen engagement? Perhaps… the CausedWired movement is also changing lives and inspiring new a new generation of wired social entrepreneurs to reach for something better.

On October 6th, I’ll be speaking at SMX-East on the topic of Buzz Monitoring in the “Search and Reputation Management” session, 3:45 – 5pm in New York City. If you’d like to attend (there are 30 or so other sessions besides mine) and you’ve not booked your ticket for this conference yet, then you can use the discount code smxspeak when registering to save $150 off the cost of a new registration.

On October 28th, in San Jose, CA, there’ll be a new event called BlogWell.  We won’t be speaking at this.  But, that’s because the 8 speakers are all senior people in charge of social media at large corporation, such as Cisco, Graco, The Home Depot, Intel, Kaiser Permanente, UPS, Walmart, and Wells Fargo. So, for the minimal price of $200, you get to hear case studies, how to get started, how to keep the ball rolling, and best practices.

Moving on to December, both Joy and I will be speaking at the Specialized Information Publishers Association’s (SIPA) annual online marketing conference. I’ll be talking about all aspects of Reputation Management, and Joy will be covering Analytics. I’ve actually been on the planning committee for this conference, so to see it grow from the first meeting to now being a fully scheduled event – with great speakers from major companies (AOL, Cisco, Marketing Sherpa, Forrester Research, etc) – is absolutely fantastic.

So, if you’d like to attend this show, we’ll be in Las Vegas from December 8-10, with a really good hotel rate of only $119 per night at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

That’s a fairly common expression that’s fairly true. How many times has your company bought pizza for the staff, only to find out that you have to sit through a presentation by the CEO, or it is used as an excuse to let you know that you’ll have to work much later for the next 3 weeks?

The same can also be said in the online world. When someone offers you something for free, you have to question why that is. It could be:

• a loss leader for branding purposes
• a tool for upselling purposes
• a way to generate links
• something insidious

Hmm? Insidious? How can that be? Well, let’s take the example of WordPress Themes. Doing a search on “Free WordPress Themes” pulls up quite a few sites. Now, I’m not going to target one in particular.  But, let’s just say that I did click through to a few of the first page results and witnessed the same behavior.

All of these sites give you the option to look through their portfolio and pick out a theme to use for free – even giving you the instructions as to how to load it onto your site. It’s only after you load it that you notice (if you’re observant enough) that there are some links in the footer of every page.

Ok – links to the company that designed it and gave it away for free – that’s one thing (which is why I list that separately above), but links to spammy MP3 download sites, and so on, that’s just bad.

And, don’t think that the authors don’t realize that.  If you try to look through the code for those links, it’s not there… how can that be? Well, what they tend to do is encrypt the links in the footer so that you can’t find them there.  And of course, that makes it harder to take them out.

Some developers have taken to hijacking the 404 page of ‘free’ themes with redirects, which then transfers page equity over to the developer’s site. Very sneaky, and not something that you’ll necessarily notice unless you go looking for it.

Now, on the other hand, there are plenty of free things that are worthwhile, with anything open source being a great example of communities banding together to create content and tools for each other.

So, what I’m saying here, is be careful.  Make sure to look at what you’re getting to make sure there are no surprises, after all…

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Nate is out this week, so I am filling in.  Next week, he will be back and the political coverage will resume.

Last week, I had the great opportunity to go to the XM offices (the COOLEST offices I’ve ever seen – even cooler than the Turner Broadcasting offices in Atlanta) and meet the band Safety Suit .  Their first hit song, ‘Someone Like You,’ has been popular since even before they officially released their album mid-May.

I was blown away by how nice, friendly, humble, and appreciative all four guys were.  But, I was more surprised by what I experienced.  The band was there as sort of a ‘meet and greet’ for some of the Program Directors from some of XM’s 170 digital channels.

After being friendly and gracious to everyone they met, the band eventually ended up in a conference room with their acoustic instruments.  After introducing themselves to a room full of strangers, they performed a few songs.

When they were done, they immediately began to work the room.  I am not saying that in a negative or condescending way.  Each band member made sure that they introduced themselves to each person in the room, and not just with a passing ‘hello’ but with a decent, funny, interesting conversation.

I’ve seen a LOT of concerts and up till now, I had always figured (like I assume most people do) that famous bands have some combination of talent and luck.  That may have been true at one time, but not today.  With all of the competition, the only way to be a hit (or frontlist) and not part lost in the tail - a band must have:

• Talent – Listening to any song on the album, you will hear the talent

• Personality – Funny, funny, funny guys

• Willingness to work harder than they ever imagined – The first time I heard of Safety Suit was back in April when I was driving through Columbia, SC.  They had stopped by a radio station there to do an on-air performance.  If you Google Safety Suit, you will see that the station in Columbia is one of MANY.

• Embraced the concept of networking/marketing in a traditional sense – Using their funny personalities and humility to win over person after person as they tour and promote their album

• Embraced even more the concept of social marketing – MySpace, Facebook, YouTube – they have it covered

In talking with Doug, the singer, he mentioned that if he weren’t ‘doing what he was currently doing’ that he’d be in Advertising/Marketing.  Then, he laughed and said jokingly… ‘Well, I guess this is being in advertising.’   Not only could a lot of bands learn a lot from these guys, so could a lot of companies.

Gabriel David Rhea was born at 5:16 on Monday, September 15th 2008.

He weighed 7lbs 6.6oz and was 19 inches long.

He and his mom are both doing great.