Search Marketing

April 29, 2010

Background• Mizzou graduate – Class of 2004• Dual Major in Advertising and Statistics• First job in 2004 out of school was for ShowMeTickets.com• Marketing team began work on VA Mortgage Center.com

• 5 employees• Some web exposure• Generating roughly 20 online leads per week

• Drive traffic to the Website• How to Convert Visitors on your Website

Enter Search Marketing & Lead Generation

Fast Forward 5 Years …• Number 1 provider of VA Loans Nationwide• 300+ employees in 7 states• Annual revenue over $30MM

What we will Lean Today

• Building a Search Marketing Campaign– Keyword Research– Google - Organic vs Paid Search– Paid Search Optimization– Organic Search Optimization– Lead Generation– Conversion Rate Optimization

Keyword Research

• It all starts here …• Identify relevant keywords• Quickly see demand and volume• Very first step in site planning• To an online marketer, this might be the first step in planning a new business

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

To a search marketer, every single phrase in an opportunity to acquire traffic and make money, from ‘textbooks’, to ‘tickets’ to ‘mortgage’

Google’s Anatomy

• Set up an account with Google• Write ads and bid on keywords• Set max bid• Pay when someone clicks on your ad

Paid Ads

Pros & Cons• Can be a way to quickly test interest• Affordable• Long term can get expensive

Advertisement Optimization

Track, Tweak, Refine, Optimize• Click Thru Rate (CTR)• Cost Per Click (CPC)• Conversion Rate • Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)• Keywords and negative keywords

Annualized, Ad 1 will yield 576 more leads and cost $9,000 less!

Ad 1

Ad 2

Google’s Anatomy

• Free-ish• Determined by Algorithm

• age of website• on the page factors • back links

Organic, Algorithmic Results

• Not Really Free• Takes a long time to obtain• Hard to obtain• Often competing against established sites

Pros & Cons

On Page Optimization – Source Code

1. Actual words on the page2. Site architecture3. Page <title>4. Meta tags5. Spiders ignore images & Flash

Spiders index content

If it is not in the source code when you “View Source” a search engine can’t see it.

Off Page Optimization - Links

1. Textbooks.com – 1094 links2. Half.com – 659 links3. BN.com – 140 links4. Abes – 660 links (poor quality)

Yahoo Site Explorerhttp://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

Ranking for “textbooks”

Link text helps determine relevancy“Find Chuck Norris”

To determine the importance of a page, we first need to know the importance of all the pages linking to it

Beyond Search …

Build a Community Blog Social Networks Email Marketing Viral Marketing

Lead Generation

• Online Customer Acquisition

• Identified as one of the biggest growth areas in online marketing.

“Sign Ups” for Newsletters, Emails, More information. A request to be contacted

Lead Generation

Lead Generation – Lead Quality

• Can be referred to as Lead Score• Determines Likelihood of Conversion

• “Home Loan” is much more likely to result in a profitable sale.

Phrase - “Home Loan”Ave Credit: GoodAve Home Value: $300,000When: Within a Month

Phrase - “Loan”Ave Credit: FairAve Home Value: $120,000When: Over 6 Months

Conversion Optimization• What to do with visitors to your site.• Improving your website conversion can exponentially increase your

profits, with almost no added expenses. • Give your visitors a path to find the information they need.• Guide visitors into taking the desired action on your site.

Conversion Rate Optimization

• Converting at 5%

• 500 Visitors per month

• 25 Leads a Month

• A lead is worth $10

• Revenue = $250

• Profit = $100

• Converting at 10%

• 500 Visitors per month

• 50 Leads a Month

• A lead is worth $10

• Revenue = $500

• Profit = $350You’ve doubled your revenue with no additional expenses!

Two Websites

Conversion OptimizationOur website in 2005

Conversion OptimizationOur website in 2007

Conversion OptimizationOur website in 2010

What You’ve Learned Today

• Building an Online Campaign– Keyword Research– Google’s Anatomy - Organic vs Paid– Paid Search Optimization– Organic Search Optimization– Lead Generation– Conversion Rate Optimization

Open Discussion