Using Timing and Accountability in Advertising
I was listening to a local sports talk radio show today while driving between client appointments. This show is probably the most well known and prominent show in the area for either AM or FM. That would mean that the advertising rates for these radio spots are probably the highest priced. Now, stay with me here. Late last week it was very pleasant here in Mid-Michigan, unseasonable, and in the high 60s, sunny. People were taking advantage of this, as I saw many golfers out on the local courses. In the tradition of Michigan weather — this changed quickly over the weekend. Today I brushed snow off my car, it was 31 degrees.
Back to my AM drivetime. I heard an ad for a local golf course advertising a special to play all day for $35. I looked around. The truck said 32 degrees, it was gray, nasty windy, and snowing. How valuable was that ad at that time? I thought about this.
Now, did the golf course place the ad right after the nice weather, anticipating it would last and an extended season? Did the golf course have the ad running last week during the nice weather? Does the course always place these ads for these specials this time of year?
You know what, it doesn’t matter. This ad reached me, and was highly mis-targeted. Yes, I am a male 25-39, I like sports, beer,etc. and I do like to golf. Good targeting. But the content of the ad inviting me to golf all day in this weather at that time was enough to make me shiver. Not at the thought of golfing in this type of weather that was more fit for deer hunting or football. But at that the thought that these was money spent on that ad spot. It was had an ROI of 0%. And even worse, that ROI WAS UN-TRACKABLE.
It made me glad that I work in an industry that has features in advertising such as:
A reaching customers looking for my clients’ products and services, not managing how my clients hunt and peck for their consumers.
The ability to change where an ad is placed, what is says, and who it speaks to within minutes.
I can specifically track the effectiveness of these ads, and my clients’ ad spend.
Now, I am not naive to believe that there can’t be shortcomings for search marketing. But, if you are managing your own AdWords or other search marketing campaign, be sure to use timing, a change in market conditions, and accountability in your advertising to your advantage. You’ll be glad you did, and should allow your approach shots (ads) to be much tighter to the pin (customers).
The Scary, Growing Ad Group, It’s the Attack of the Adblob!
We participated in the Greater Lansing Business Monthly Fall Showcase yesterday, and I was a presenter at the Lansing IT Council’s Google 101 event. Both went very well. At the Showcase, we had lots of interested companies stop by, and we also saw a lot of old friends and colleagues. At the Google 101 presentation, it was myself, Bill Hamilton of TechSmith, Ryan Vartoogian of Spartan Internet Consulting, and Travis Stoliker of Liquid Web. It was a very exciting honor to be on this panel with such respected and successful individuals, and their companies.
The areas I spoke on within the presentation were:
Search Engine Result basics - explaining the difference between paid and organic results.
Ad Group Development and Ad Construction - a real favorite topic of mine.
Key takeaways - I got to wrap up the presentation with key points of emphasis, and well as some tangible takeaways, such as setting up a Google Webmaster Tools account, and registering with the Google Local Business Center, and some resources available at Google.
Getting back to Ad Groups, I discussed the importance of setting up very tightly constructed ad groups, with with specific and ultra-relevant keywords. I have seen too many companies group several keywords and keyword variations into too few ad groups. The result are ad groups which generate low click through rates, or worse yet, ads that show up for keywords that are too broad, and attract clicks that result in poor visits to your site. Now that is expensive! In the spirit of Halloween, I like to call it the Attack of the the Adblob!!!
You may start with good intentions and a few keywords centered around your service or product, and then over time the temptation to keep adding keywords to it that you think users may type in. Or maybe you are passive in your approach, grouping in a lot of keywords into just 2-3 ad groups thinking it will just magically work.
While it is good to add relevant keywords that your target audience may type in, you need to establish ad texts in different ad groups that address the diverese keyword variations. And I am not talking about just the color of your product either. Be thinking about those keyword variations for ad texts. ”Halloween costume” should be not in the same ad group as “Halloween masks”. Is there a rule of thumb on the number of keyphrases? Well no, but anything more than 8 should have you concerned.
A fundamental driver to any good Adwords venture is small ad groups. This approach enables specific ad creation, which allows for the usage of keyword variations in ad text, which allows for higher click through rates, which means a better Quality Score, which means lower cost per click. Whew! But seriously, that is the cycle, and that is why that approach is important.
Enjoy your Halloween,,, and don’t let the Adblob massacre your AdWords budget!
Back to School Part 2
Well, it was back to school again on Friday — Google School if you will. I was up late cramming like a college student on Thursday night, as I took the exam to become a Google Adwords Qualified Individual. In an industry where there still is not a lot of qualifications or official status degrees, this is an important one. The exam was not very difficult, and only a couple of billing and international questions caught me off guard a bit. You need at 75% to pass, — I got a 90%. This is wildy exciting. No, really, let’s party, I’ll bring the Bombay Sapphire.
In all seriousness, as our industry moves forward, I hope that there continues to be industry certifications and qualifications that appear. I know that currently the SEMPO and the WAA offer some as well. Some colleges have started to take mild approaches as well. My hope is that sometime in the very near future a major Big 10 university we see offered Online Marketing as a degree choice, or least as a cognate/minor. I would envision a curriculum encompassing classes on business aspects of web design, online brand development, online social media, paid search management, web analytics, and of course organic optimization. I think there is a good demand for it, and as a learning base of the opportunities in the industry grows at the younger levels, this demand will increase.
In the meantime, we rely on Google and Yahoo to set standards and bars, which we will continue to strive for and achieve at Netvantage Marketing. Speaking of bars,,,, did you bring the tonic, ,,, or least a lime!
Back to School
I had an opportunity to do some guest teaching at Mason High School yesterday. I came in for Kristin Higgins’s Info Tech class. I talked about the importance of Google, and how it will become an increasingly important channel for marketers to market to their generation. To make the point obvious to them, we took some polls. We took an obvious poll of how many of them watch TV, or even watch the commercials on TV. Many of them barely listened to the radio, much less listening to those commercials. Finally, I rattled off some search engines, Yahoo, Live, AOL, Cuil, Omgili, Ask, and a few kids raised their hands. Then of course it was nearly 100% of those that raised their hands for Google as their search engine of choice. We then talked further about how Google will become the primary marketing channel for their generation of consumers.
We then walked through some fun keyword volumes examples, such as approximatley how many times do you think Jay-Z was searched on Google in September. (1.8 Million) I showed them some of the basics of natura search, keeping light, of course. We then walked through and set up a Google AdWords campaign for Mason Bulldog Sweatshirts, writing the ad, selecting geography, setting the budget, etc. Within 10 minutes, there ad was showing on Google, which of course was neat.
Finally, I talked about careers in search marketing, and in marketing/IT in general. Within this, I mentioned the Capital Area IT Council, and their efforts in trying to promote careers in our field, and getting people excited. As high school kids go, many haven’t thought that far ahead, but I tried to stress the possible educational/career track, as well as the many benefits of working in our industry. In summary, it was great to be in the classroom with young people, and give them a little insight into how a powerful marketing channel works. I look forward to representing Netvantage Marketing, and the CAITC in the future with such events.
A Visit from Google
I attended the Lansing Economic Club Luncheon at the Kellogg Center yesterday, and we were able to hear John Kelley, of Google Adwords to speak. Aside from the surprisingly good chicken lunch, it was very good. John primarily heads up the Google AdWords division, I believe the official title is Manager, Online Sales and Operations, and works in the Google office in Ann Arbor. John dida very good job of laying out Google’s history, direction, and current opportunities for advertising.
And he did it in a way that resonated with a group of business people that really don’t have an understanding of tech, yet of course use Google every day. The event had around 200 people in attendance. I am not sure who on the Economic Club was responsible for bringing John in, but it was a good move, and a great move for our new company.
Having him in front of that audience was a great way to heighten awareness to the advertising potential, and accountability, that Google and search marketing can deliver. My hope of course is that those in the audience may turn to Netvantage for assistance in setting up and/or managing their campaign. And again, my hats off to the foresight of the the Lansing Economic Club to bring in a top-line speaker on an important and innovative subject. (well, of course I am biased in how important it is 
Network, Network, NETwork
Well, shame on me. It has been two weeks since I have posted. We have been very busy at Netvantage Marketing. It seems to me that the business community and associations have a vast period of inactivity between July 1st and Labor Day, and then bam - I am going to Capital Area IT Council meetings, Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce Bottom Line breakfasts, luncheons, and local business association meetings. Why? Well because we want to network, and pursue all avenues possible to spread the word on Netvantage Marketing. And I am guessing that we will be on this torrid pace until Thanksgiving - and then of course its “we’ll get to it after the Holidays”. But until then, lots of meetings and networking events, which should be a lot of fun.
Why network? Well for lots of reasons that you know. But this is not a post about why network to build leads. You can get that in something like the local paper’s business tips section. Besides the odd chance that we will gain a lead, we network to help build brand. Build brand? Yes, remember a brand is not your logo. A brand is what your various target audiences perceive of you. Is is totally controllable? Unless you can manipulate people’s minds, no. But can you contribute to it? Of course! Giving the right first impression when you network at events helps build your perception and resultant brand.
However, don’t forget to build your online brand. Online brand development is very key to your business. Thinking of the home page of your website as that first handshake and 45 second elevator pitch at a cocktail mixer will go a long way in the success of your website as an important part of your business model. At Netvantage, we are always looking at ways to drive more traffic to your site, with search engine marketing, and search engine optimization, and web analytics. However, first and foremost, before we can do our work, we also need to make sure that our client’s online handshake is strong enough, and that their website is able to NETwork. So if you are looking to generate more traffic to your site, be sure to take a good look at the site, and take the appropriate steps to develop the right online brand.
End of summer
Well, the unofficial end of summer is here. Here in Michigan, kids go back to school, legislators go back to doing what they do, and people tend to get more focused on work, and not what up north destination they will be camping at the upcoming weekend.
In my previous positions at Michigan State, this transition always seemed to happen the week before Labor Day, when classes start. However, most recently at the private sector Internet consulting firm I was at, you always saw it. All of a sudden, projects and initiatives they were unconsciously being put off get placed on the forefront. I think its just human nature. Of course, this mad push tends to go until just after Thanksgiving, and then you hear “we will get to it in the New Year” But that is another post for another day.
We had a very busy and productive summer at Netvantage Marketing. As many of you know, this was our first summer, and we have been very fortunate to gain several great clients. They have been a nice mixture of all of our services, which is good as we don’t want to get too focused in one area. We hosted a successful seminar in East Lansing, and hosted a non profit search engine optimization contest, which was won by the way by the American Red Cross Mid Michigan Food Bank. We made some media splashes, getting featured in the Lansing State Journal’s Business Section, as well as getting featured twice in Capital Gains Media. We have found all these wonderful friends on Twitter (I really didn’t know we were that popular), and made some great connections in the blogoshere of online marketing. And we joined lots of business associations, including the Web Analytics Association, Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, Meridian Area Business Association, South Lansing Business Association, Mid Michgian Creative Alliance, and Michigan Business & Professionals Association.
So, we weren’t exactly hanging out at the Cedar Point wasting away our first summer in business. Yeah, maybe we had some fun, but it was a properous first summer, and we look forward to things getting even busier as the rest of the world comes back from the beach.
Earn, Learn, and Intern Follow up
As promised a recap of our event at Michigan State on Wednesday. Adam and I were extremely pleased at the turn out. Many hats go off to the Career Services Team at Michigan State, including John Hill, Paul Jacques, and others. Clearly it was a well received idea in the area as there were several local companies — both big and small — in attendance. What was most impressive was the amount of students that had done research on Netvantage Marketing, and those that had already possessed some experience in the areas of search engine marketing. We came out to find out many students that taken Professor Clay Vorhees ’sclass this spring and had taken the Google Online Marketing Challenge.
This type of experience is great to see, as many faculty are turning towards these types of programs to strengthen and modernize the marketing curriculum. We also talked with some students that had worked with some previous companies gaining online marketing experience. This obviously bodes well for us. We also talked with a good number of students who had done research on us, and seemed to have great attitudes. It will be a busy week next week as we select and interview prospective interns!
Intern Day
Today will be fun day as we are headed over to Michigan State University this afternoon to participate in the Earn, Learn, and Intern event, hosted by the Career Services Network at MSU. It looks like every major company in the Mid-Michigan area is attending, I give Career Services a lot of credit for the work they do, John Hill and his people are on top of it when it come to builidng relationships with local business, both large and small.
We use a good number of interns at Netvantage. MSU is an important resource for us. Our goal is to use the intern program as a pipeline to build our internal talent base. As we grow the business, we will look to retain our top performers for full time positions. It is a great recruiting tool. As for the interns that choose to move on, our goal is to arm them with unique skills that will complement their degree so they have a competitive advantage in their job search. Many of the online marketing skills we teach our interns haven’t quite made the university curriculums yet.
Besides all that, it will be great to be back on campus. I am fortunate in that upon graduating from MSU in 2000 with a Telecommunications degree, I have remained in the Mid Michigan area. I worked for the University for 5 years before taking the “big leap” into the private sector. And with classes starting, and the big footbal game against Calfornia on Saturday night on national television, there will be a great energy on campus.
Back with an update on how the event went tomorrow.
Introduction
Greetings world, and welcome to my blog. My name is Joe Ford and I am the Managing Partner at Netvantage Marketing. I was previously at an Internet consulting company in Lansing, Michigan, where my business partner, Adam Henige was also a Senior Analyst. We worked at great company, with great management and people, but we decided it was time to branch out on our own.
I had known Adam for quite awhile, I actually recruited him from Upstate New York to get his MBA at Michigan State’s Eli Broad Graduate School of Management while I was the Assistant Director of Admissions. He is quite sharp when it comes to web analytics and market research. At Netvantage, we both touch all sides of the business: search engine optimization, paid search management, and web analytics, but his emphasis on web analytics, and mine tends to be on the paid search side. We both equally divide the organic optimization aspect.
At any rate, I look forward to posting on this in the coming months, and I hope you find it beneficial as well.
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Netvantage Marketing website
