Targeted Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing Conversion Rates

Edgar Sanchez — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:31:38 +0000

An Internet Marketing study that wrapped up this month last year revealed excellent measurement goals for Internet Marketing campaign management. The study was based on 26 e-commerce sites, that generated 20.8 million visits and 108 million page views over a twelve month period.

Conversion is the goal of any marketing effort. Here are the conversion rates you should be benchmarking your Internet Marketing campaigns against:

1. Paid Search – 2.03%

2. Organic Search – 1.26%

3. Direct Url Entry – 7.38%

4. Email or Another Site link – 6.58%

Overall the average conversion rate was 3.6%. If you are hitting these numbers or doing better, your Internet marketing campaigns are performing well.

10 Golden Rules for Building a Successful Web App

Edgar Sanchez — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:23:08 +0000

Web applications need to be built from ground up with search and social media in mind.

The 10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps from Carsonified on Vimeo.

The ten rules are:

Speed
Instant Utility
Software is Media
Less is More
Make it Programmable
Make it Personal
RESTful
Discoverabilty
Clean
Playful

10 Tips for Landing Page Copy That Converts

Edgar Sanchez — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:30:04 +0000

Match your headline and ad
Make your Call To Action Clear – Your visitor is not a mind reader, keep the call to action button or sign up form above the fold
Write in Second Person – You or Your not I or we
Be Persuasive (not clever) – Inform, Persuade and Motivate
Be Crystal Clear – What do you want them to know what do you want them to do
Keep important stuff firs and in bullets – It is harder to read on a screen. People read half the speed. Make your points in first and last sentence or first and last bullet
Use Bookends
Keep it short and vary the length – The first paragraph should be 1-2 lines. No paragraph should be more than 4-5 lines long
Write to the screen environment – Keep testimonials and call to action above the fold, test on several browsers
Don’t ask for what you don’t need – don’t make forms to long or all field mandatory

Source: Ion Interactive Webinar

Global Search Marketing Report

Edgar Sanchez — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:20:04 +0000

Search Marketing is still in its infancy both from a technological and market perspective. Currently search marketing comprises roughly only about 7% of the overall global advertising spend. In 2009 this translated to $26 Billion US in search advertising. It is expected that by 2015 the search market will grow to $55 Billion or 11% of the global advertising market.

The spectacular growth in search marketing can be attributed to the fact that return on investment (ROI) can be precisely measured.

The search marketing, PPC or Paid Placement leader is Google. Since its start just 12 years ago, Google has gone on to dominate this market. Today it owns the search market space. Its global market share is 74%. Its US market share is 83%.

Global PPC Spend by Country

The US is still by far the largest search market in the world, comprising of 42.4% of worldwide search spend. With the UK far behind in second place at 11.6% and Japan in third place at a distant 8.6%.

Source: Credit Suisse Google Report

Great Internet Retail Research by Wharton

Edgar Sanchez — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:45:38 +0000

Wharton has written two papers on the effect of geography on Internet retail sales.

The first paper concludes that off line word of mouth is more effective than online word of mouth. This should clue marketers in how to more effectively manage referrals.

The second paper concludes that long tail strategy is valid and the paper supports a niche oriented sales strategy.

You can read the full article and get both papers here: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2455

The Top Social Media Sites

Edgar Sanchez — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:23:14 +0000

According to a survey by Websitemazine.com the top 5 social media sites are:

Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin
Youtube
StumbleUpon
WebsiteMagazine Social Media survery 2010

Website Magazine also learned from the suvery:

81.7% of those surveyed said they will commit more time to social media
43.2% of websites are B2B and 56.8 are B2C
58.6% see a positive ROI in social media
66.3% say that they get more website traffic as result of their social media efforts

10 Advanced PPC Bidding Strategies

Edgar Sanchez — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:27:18 +0000

Get the free white paper: 10 dvanced PPC Bidding Strategies, Maximizing the Success of Your Paid Search Campaigns

from Search Marketing Now.

According the white paper the 10 advanced PPC bidding strategies for this economy are:

Cut Back on Long-Tail Keywords
Focus Keywords on Value and Savings
Maximize AdWords Performance
Keep Bidding on Your Brand and Trademark Terms
Bid on Your Competitors’ Brand Terms
Manage Bids by Ad Group
Bid by Lifetime Customer Value
Bid by Margin, Not Revenue
Bid by Ad Clusters
Use Low Bids to Maximize Affiliate Revenue

The case for Search Marketing

Edgar Sanchez — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:18:09 +0000

If you are not advertising online, especially if you are in the retail industry you are missing out in significant sales opportunities.

According to Comscore World Matrix study in July 2007, Canada had the highest online penetration at 70% (20.6 million unique users) even beating out the USA which had 60% penetration. Canadians spend on average 43 hours per month online. While online 78% of Canadian’s use search engines to research online and offline purchases. Out of these doing research 27% purchased online while 45% used the information to purchase via a regular retail channel.

Highest Worldwide Internet Usage per month

The demographics for those searching online are typically adults both females and males with a household income of $60,000 and over. One quarter of the online surfers have post secondary education.

Adults 18+:	90%
Male vs. Female ratio:	50 / 50%
Household Income $60K+:	56%
Post-Secondary Education:	24%

Source: comScore Media Metrix Canada, May 2005

Although every industry can benefit from search marketing program, by far the one industry that sees the most action from a PPC program is the retail industry followed by Corporate Presence and Travel.

Industry receiving most PPC

Search Consumer Behavior Increasing

Edgar Sanchez — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:20:17 +0000

Google says the trend for search is increasing despite the recession. Consumers are searching more and the behavior will not change going forward. Google says marketers should not only focus on the conversion aspect of search but also the brand value.

Google Says Stick to Basics when it comes to SEO

Edgar Sanchez — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:19:35 +0000

Google’s Maile Ohye says focus on SEO basics and not so much on trying to out smart the search engine algorithms. Google along with other search engines constantly change their rank algorithms, that renders the majority of SEO tactics useless.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Interview with Google’s Maile Ohye from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.