tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2008://4 2006-10-04T20:38:29Z Movable Type 3.31 tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.114 2006-10-04T20:37:16Z 2006-10-04T20:38:29Z

by Joel Walsh Business website owners who buy online advertising often get frustrated when most of their expensive traffic leaves as soon as it arrives--i.e, it "bounces." Why does traffic from online advertising bounce? Think about it: you've done the...

OMAstaff by Joel Walsh Business website owners who buy online advertising often get frustrated when most of their expensive traffic leaves as soon as it arrives--i.e, it "bounces." Why does traffic from online advertising bounce? Think about it: you've done the same thing many times. You've searched on a search engine, clicked on a result, then left that page less than ten seconds after you arrived. You did that again and again until you found what you were looking for. You might easily have left a trail of bounces on the server logs of a dozen websites, for a dozen website owners to worry over. Why did you keep leaving? Because you weren't finding what you were looking for on those websites within the first ten to thirty seconds of arriving. Experience had taught you that you'd find what you were looking for faster clicking on other search results, one of which was bound to have what you were looking for, than sifting through the pages of a website that didn't look very promising from the start. That's how everyone searches, and how everyone treats online advertising. You have to work with this behavior rather than against it. How to Catch Your Online Advertising Traffic before It Bounces So how do you keep online advertising traffic from bouncing? Think about why you bounced. What made you doubt that the website had what you were searching for? If you were using a search engine, you had searched on a keyword--let's say you searched on "small business website content." Without realizing it, you were scanning each page for the keyword, "small business website content," or something very close to it. A website that talked about "small business web copy" might have been what you were looking for, but if you didn't know that "web copy" is just another term for "website content," you'd have hit the "back" button. You’d keep hitting the "back" button until you arrived at a page that had that keyword in the page title, page headings, and in the first few lines of the body, maybe in boldface to make it easier to find. Of course, if you arrived at the page via a link from another website, you weren't looking for a search engine keyword. You were just looking (hoping) for something that had to do with what made you click on the link in the first place. If the page title and the first page heading resembled the text of the link you had clicked on, you'd feel like you had found what you were looking for--no worries about this being one of those pages that changed after the other site started linking to it. But if the link promised no. 72 monkey wrenches, you'd feel let down if it brought you to the homepage of a hardware store. Experience tells you the store might have stopped selling no. 72 monkey wrenches long ago and never bothered updating its inbound links. Experience also tells you that even if the site does have what you're looking for, it may be more trouble than it's worth to find it. Why search through a website when search results from the entire world wide web are just a click of the "back" button away? Thanks to the "back" button, on the web, no one has to feel let down for long. Except advertisers who let visitors down. tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.113 2006-10-04T20:32:20Z 2006-10-04T20:37:06Z

By Jack Elmy If you are considering launching a website for your business or entering the lucrative world of e-commerce by starting an online business, there are a few things you need to keep in mind in order to assure...

OMAstaff By Jack Elmy If you are considering launching a website for your business or entering the lucrative world of e-commerce by starting an online business, there are a few things you need to keep in mind in order to assure your web site’s success. Without taking the time to understand how the Internet and search engines work you will certainly guarantee that no one will see your site. The Internet is a whole new ball game when it comes to marketing. Invest a few minutes in making your website a success by browsing through the tips listed in the Internet marketing guide below. http://www.900-business-plans.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your e-book or on your web site, free of charge, so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above. ]]> tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.112 2006-10-04T20:23:00Z 2006-10-04T20:28:43Z

by Scott F. Geld http://www.MarketingBlaster.com...

OMAstaff http://www.MarketingBlaster.com ]]> http://www.MarketingBlaster.com]]> tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.111 2006-10-04T20:19:24Z 2006-10-04T20:22:40Z

By Aaron Turpen of The Online Auction Academy There are a lot of things that businesses need to spend money on just to keep running from day to day. There is no such thing as an expense-less business. All businesses...

OMAstaff By Aaron Turpen of The Online Auction Academy There are a lot of things that businesses need to spend money on just to keep running from day to day. There is no such thing as an expense-less business. All businesses have to spend money on something: be it payroll, shipping, packaging, Internet access, etc. With a little imagination, however, the entrepreneur can lower these costs or even remove them altogether! The basic ways of lowering expenses fall into three categories: barter, negotiation, and research. Barter Bartering for goods and services is the most obvious and common way that a business shares or eliminates costs that would otherwise be incurred. By trading services, sharing the cost of goods, or even forming strategic partnerships to eliminate one or more expenditures can go a long way towards strengthening a small business. Let's take an example. Mary runs a small pet store and grooming service. Next door to her is a small neighborhood grocery run by Frank. Frank regularly throws out bones, scrap meat, and other things. He spends $200 per month for dumpster service to have his garbage bin in the back alley emptied weekly. Mary, on the other hand, has a smaller garbage bin and spends only $75 per month having it emptied only twice per month. One day the two strike up a conversation in the back alley as they do their end-of-day chores before going home. Frank laments at the cost of the garbage removal and the amount of trash he seems to accumulate. Smelling the evidence, Mary sees that fair portions of what he's throwing away are meat bones. Getting an idea, she makes a proposal. She rarely fills her own garbage bin, but still pays the fee to have it emptied. She proposes a deal with Frank. She'll cancel her own garbage service and use Frank's dumpster and pay $60 per month for the use. She'll also take Frank's old meat bones instead of him throwing them away. She can give those to her customers as freebie incentives. Frank pays less for his garbage removal and Mary pays less for hers - plus gets the extra bonus of the meat bones for her customers. The deal is struck! Negotiation Bartering to trade services is one thing, but negotiating for something you have no choice but to pay for is another. Many small suppliers, especially if you are a regular customer, are willing to give various incentives to keep you as their customer or reward you for your loyalty. Sometimes a five-minute talk with the manager can result in a discount, credit line, or other incentive. It never hurts to ask. As an example, let's go back to Mary who runs the pet store. Every month, Mary makes a trip to a warehouse in the next city, which sells pelleted rabbit food to farmers and wholesalers. These alfalfa pellets are fairly expensive at $10 per fifty pounds. Mary generally stocks ten bags per month and pours them into bins to sell by the pound to city-bound pet owners. She has a good rapport with the manager of the warehouse who always helps her load her small pickup with the goods - she is one of a few customers who don't take delivery from the warehouse. She asks the manager one day how long he thinks she's being coming to his warehouse. The conversation moves towards the costs of delivery and her per shop's regular struggle to stay profitable. Finally, Mary asks the warehouse manager if they've ever thought of giving incentives to customers who pick up their own goods. The manager makes a quick call to his boss and approves a 2% discount for will-call customers. Mary's conversation has saved her $2/month, which totals $24 per year. It also means that her pellets are more profitable as this also increases their profit margins at sale! Research The final and possibly the easiest of the three types of cost-saving for the business owner is research. Whether your business purchases goods, services, or supplies - somewhere out there is someone willing to sell these things for less. Doing some research can save you money when you find these better sources. Mary is having trouble keeping her sales of dog collars profitable. One particular type is most troublesome, with a profit margin of only 8%. She cannot raise the price or she will no longer be competitive with the larger retail stores in the area. Her only options are to continue taking a loss or find a cheaper source for this product. She looks through several vendor catalogues and finds that no one has a substantially lower price than anyone else. She does notice, however, that one vendor gives lower prices on larger volume purchases. Looking at sales histories, she can see that she averages 20 collars per month and normally buys them every third month from her vendor. Buying a year's worth in advance would save her about 12% on the cost, thus boosting her marginal profit to 20% - much better than eight! Basic business sense and a little effort can net higher profitability for your business by lowering your costs of doing business. You would be surprised at how many entrepreneurs and managers fail to put forth the slight effort it takes to lower these costs! tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.110 2006-10-03T15:14:53Z 2006-10-03T15:17:20Z

6/29/2006 02:58:00 AM Posted by Benjamin Ling, Product Lead, and Louis Perrochon, Engineering Director We've heard time and again from users: "I find great stores through Google search, but every time I try to buy from an online store, I...

OMAstaff 6/29/2006 02:58:00 AM Posted by Benjamin Ling, Product Lead, and Louis Perrochon, Engineering Director We've heard time and again from users: "I find great stores through Google search, but every time I try to buy from an online store, I have to re-enter the same billing, shipping, and credit card information. There are too many steps. Why can't it be as fast as a Google search?" This motivated us to improve the online purchase process, and so today we're announcing Google Checkout, a checkout option that makes buying across the web fast and easy. Google]]> tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.109 2006-10-03T15:09:34Z 2006-10-03T15:11:44Z

Maya Roney, 06.09.06, 12:46 PM ET RBC Capital Markets maintained an "outperform" rating on Google in light of the impending launch of the company's online payment system, currently known as "GBuy." Consumers using GBuy, which is set for release on...

OMAstaff Maya Roney, 06.09.06, 12:46 PM ET RBC Capital Markets maintained an "outperform" rating on Google in light of the impending launch of the company's online payment system, currently known as "GBuy." Consumers using GBuy, which is set for release on June 28, will be taken off the merchant's site to complete the payment. This will enable Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) to capture e-commerce transaction data, driving more precise targeting in future searches. Forbes.com]]> tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.104 2006-09-29T16:14:57Z 2006-09-29T16:16:25Z

GameAccount is ready to launch their premier Skill Games Affiliate program, RedHotPartners. The program is already proving popular, with several leading global gambling affiliates coming on board. RedHotPartners will offer one of the most competitive tiered CPA (cost-per-acquisition) and revenue...

OMAstaff GameAccount is ready to launch their premier Skill Games Affiliate program, RedHotPartners. The program is already proving popular, with several leading global gambling affiliates coming on board. RedHotPartners will offer one of the most competitive tiered CPA (cost-per-acquisition) and revenue structures in the market place in return for the promotion of high-value P2P Skill Games such as Gin Rummy and skill-based Multiplayer Blackjack Tournaments. RedHotPartners is likely to prove even more popular with the advent of more prominent global market restrictions pushing affiliates to find alternative avenues for generating revenues. Lee-Ann Johnstone, GameAccount's newly appointed Affiliate Marketing Manager, said, 'Skill Gaming is definitely underexposed in the market as a recognised source of attractive revenue generation. These are Affiliates looking to diversify their portfolios by advertising skill game brands that do not fall within the tighter current legislative restrictions.' These latest developments come after GameAccount recently announcement the advancement of partnership deals with the prestigious PaddyPower, Skybet, Victor Chandler and the Guardian who have all recognised the potential that skill games hold in terms of generating additional legal revenue streams. tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.103 2006-09-29T16:12:04Z 2006-09-29T16:13:44Z

Release Date: 12 September 2006 vcmedia, the online advertising sales house owned by ValueClick, has announced the completion of the integration and launch of a new technology platform. Following the acquisition of Fastclick (a US-based network) by ValueClick Inc. in...

OMAstaff Release Date: 12 September 2006 vcmedia, the online advertising sales house owned by ValueClick, has announced the completion of the integration and launch of a new technology platform. Following the acquisition of Fastclick (a US-based network) by ValueClick Inc. in September 2005, the technologies of vcmedia and Fastclick have been integrated and re-launched as vcmedia in the UK. The combined advertising network becomes the UK’s 4th biggest network (including portals) by unique users, ahead of Adviva, 24/7 Real Media, AOL, Lycos, Tiscali and Orange Broadband(1), with 18 million UK unique users and a reach of 59%(2). The network is made up of over 3,000 UK websites, with access to 13,500 websites in Europe and the US, making it a truly global network. + More Reach, More Breadth and Improved Optimisation = Better Performance In addition to vcmedia reaching 59% of UK web users and 18 million unique users, the technology that powers the network, channels and exclusively represented websites, has a range of new features available to advertisers. Dynamic optimisation, behavioural and geo-targeting, and targeting by content channels, time, day, ISP, and bandwidth are all available, thereby increasing campaign performance against advertiser objectives. + Evolution of New Pricing Model The company has also launched a new pricing model to sit within the new technology. Named eCPM (Effective Cost per Thousand Impressions), it works by translating every pricing model, CPC (Cost per Click), CPA (Cost per Acquisition) and CPM (Cost per Thousand) into an eCPM, giving website publishers access to a larger variety of campaigns, regardless of the original pricing metric. Advertisers in turn will see their campaigns opened up to more publishers, providing them with more variety and reach. + Committed to Outstanding Customer Service To fully support clients with these new capabilities, the vcmedia team has been reorganized to provide an even higher level of superior customer service throughout the duration of a client’s campaign. The sales team will continue be a primary point of contact, but due to the new technology’s simple to use interface, it will enable to team to be even more strategic and pro-active, fully supporting the capabilities and the needs of the advertiser. To assist the sales team and their clients, a new team has been developed, combining the roles of operations and account management. This team will set up, optimise and traffic campaigns, providing on-going feedback to the sales team and their clients. In addition, the publisher development team will work on a combination of publisher acquisition and existing publisher account development to help them increase their revenue potential. A re-launched website for vcmedia is now live at www.vcmedia.co.uk, and contains additional information about the new technology for advertisers and publishers, a blog, industry news and the option to subscribe to a monthly newsletter. Carl White, Chief Executive Officer, ValueClick Europe said “The integration of both technologies has enabled us to pick the best features of each. We believe that publishers and advertisers will benefit from this best of breed technology. The improved vcmedia platform underpins ValueClick’s focus on delivering the best local and global advertising network via efficient and innovative technology.” vcmedia is a founding member of IASH (Internet Advertising Sales Houses). (1) Source: comScore Media Metrix, top UK network and portal sites, July 2006. Unique Users (000) at 1 July 2006 Advertising.com 24,881 MSN 20,535 Yahoo! 19,304 vcmedia 17,890 adviva 16,773 Casale Media Network 15,306 24/7 Real Media 13,445 Burst Media 9,820 AOL 8,937 Ask 6,855 Lycos, Inc. 4,372 Tiscali Sites 3,233 Wanadoo Sites 3,160 (2) Source: comScore, 2 August 2006. - Ends- Contact Details ValueClick Europe Lisa Hancox PR Manager Tel: +44 (0)20 8785 5835 M: +44 (0)7881 820862 Email: lhancox@valueclick.com About ValueClick: ValueClick Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK) is one of the world’s largest integrated online marketing companies. Through its individual brands, ValueClick offers comprehensive and scalable solutions that deliver cost-effective customer acquisition for advertisers and revenue for publishers. ValueClick provides advertisers and publishers with performance-based solutions through all online marketing channels. Brand offerings include: + vcmedia - online advertising network and ad sales for advertisers and publishers + Commission Junction - affiliate marketing + PriceRunner.co.uk – the UK’s most comprehensive and independent price comparison website + Mediaplex - intelligent technology for digital marketing, including adserving, email marketing and paid search bid management. For more information, please visit www.valueclick.co.uk. This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, ValueClick’s ability to successfully integrate its recently completed Fastclick and Webclients mergers, trends in online advertising spending and estimates of future online performance-based advertising. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements are detailed under “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission made from time to time by ValueClick, including: its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 31, 2006 and amendment to its Annual Report on Form 10-K/A filed on April 21, 2006; its current report on Form 8-K filed on February 27, 2006; recent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and Form 10-Q/A, other current reports on Form 8-K; its amended registration statement on Form S-4, filed on September 27, 2005; and its final prospectus on Form 424B3 filed on September 28, 2005. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the risk that market demand for online advertising, and performance-based online advertising in particular, will not grow as rapidly as predicted. ValueClick undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.102 2006-09-29T16:08:43Z 2006-09-29T16:11:37Z

Atlas research demonstrates the potential of dayparting on direct response campaigns Seattle, WA 9/14/2006 8:00 AM GMT (TransWorldNews) Atlas (www.atlassolutions.com), a provider of digital marketing technologies and expertise, and an operating unit of aQuantive, Inc.Inc. (NASDAQ: AQNT), today released research...

OMAstaff Atlas research demonstrates the potential of dayparting on direct response campaigns Seattle, WA 9/14/2006 8:00 AM GMT (TransWorldNews) Atlas (www.atlassolutions.com), a provider of digital marketing technologies and expertise, and an operating unit of aQuantive, Inc.Inc. (NASDAQ: AQNT), today released research demonstrating the potential of dayparting on direct response interactive marketing campaigns. Atlas’s research analysts, who studied conversion rates for each hour of the day, found the lunchtime and primetime hours as the best dayparts for conversion rates. The noon EDT hour showed the highest conversion rate of 35 percent more than the overall average. The 4 a.m. EDT hour had the lowest rate, converting at less than half of the day’s mean rate, while the morning, in general, showed the least activity. “Time of day can have a dramatic impact on a campaign as hourly conversion rates can vary as much as 50 percent from the overall average,” said Young-Bean Song, director of analytics, Atlas. “The results of this study indicate that web users save their purchases and other activities (typically tracked as conversions by marketers) for the lunch hour, after dinner or before going to bed. This is a clear indicator for direct response marketers that daypart advertising can play a key role in realizing savings in costs-per-acquisition deals.” The Atlas research also found several other factors advertisers should take into account when buying online media by daypart, including: Daypart media costs should be no more than 35 percent higher than regular rates, as this may offset any potential gain in cost-per-acquisition. Early morning hours convert the poorest, but account for 10 percent of the overall conversion volume. Cutting these hours may increase efficiency, but will sacrifice volume. •Although increasing impressions during the most effective dayparts will increase conversion rates and volumes, a point of diminishing returns may be reached due to higher frequency. Atlas’s research is based on three months of data from six advertisers across a range of different industries from online social services, to brick-and-mortar retailers, information services and consumer electronics. To view the complete Atlas Institute Digital Marketing Insight on “Online Media Conversion Rates by Daypart”, go to: http://atlassolutions.com/institute/insights.aspx. About the Atlas Institute The Atlas Institute is the research and education arm of Atlas. The Institute publishes Digital Marketing Insights, a series of publications by Atlas's senior marketing analysts and digital marketing experts that help our customers improve their digital marketing effectiveness. Many of these findings are also made available to the digital marketing industry at large. Each Digital Marketing Insight report is designed to help marketers more successfully build value with their customers, throughout the customer lifecycle: from awareness to acquisition and from retention to growth. Atlas Institute also provides education in digital marketing to Atlas customers and partners. To view a full listing of the Atlas Institute's Digital Marketing Insights, please visit http://atlassolutions.com/institute/. About Atlas Atlas (www.AtlasSolutions.com) is a provider of digital marketing technologies and expertise. Atlas offers agencies and marketers integrated solutions for online campaign management, rich media, search marketing, landing page optimization, reporting, and analysis to maximize their online ROI, and provides a highly scalable ad-serving platform to help online publishers increase revenue. Atlas delivers the industry's most complete service and support, serving its clients from offices in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Denver, and London. Atlas is an operating unit of aQuantive, Inc (NASDAQ: AQNT) and is a member of the NAI, adhering to the NAI privacy principles that have been applauded by the FTC. info@AtlasSolutions.com www.atlassolutions.com tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.101 2006-09-29T16:06:28Z 2006-09-29T16:07:22Z

PartnerCentric, Inc. announced today that the company's Director of Marketing Services, Heather Paulson, has been selected to serve on the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board....

OMAstaff PartnerCentric, Inc. announced today that the company's Director of Marketing Services, Heather Paulson, has been selected to serve on the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board. Santa Barbara, CA (PRWEB) September 22, 2006 -- PartnerCentric, Inc. announced today that the company's Director of Marketing Services, Heather Paulson, has been selected to serve on the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board. Affiliate Summit's Advisory Board is comprised of a representative group of professionals within the affiliate marketing industry. The purpose of the group is to collect feedback and discuss improvements concerning all aspects of the Affiliate Summit conference series, including what types of sessions to hold, topics to cover, speakers to feature, etc. "Heather's expertise, experience and enthusiasm when it comes to Internet marketing will serve the advisory board well," said Linda Woods, President of PartnerCentric, Inc. "She is in the trenches every day helping companies create high converting sites and landing pages, and for that reason Heather has an appreciation for the challenges and opportunities that exist. Her perspective will help ensure that future Affiliate Summit events continue to provide the kind of trail-blazing information that affiliates and merchants expect." As PartnerCentric's Director of Marketing Services, Paulson assists clients with paid search management and e-business consulting, search engine optimization, web site redesigns, landing page conversion analysis and other e-business services. Paulson has more than 10 years of experience initiating and managing cost-per-click, cost-per-thousand and cost-per-acquisition business model strategies for many Fortune 500 e-retailers. She is the proud recipient of three Golden Web Awards for e-commerce user interface design. Online registrations are now being accepted for Affiliate Summit 2007, which takes place Jan. 21-23 at Bally's Las Vegas. ClubMom CEO and Co-Founder Michael Sanchez will be the keynote speaker at the event. The Affiliate Summit series brings together professionals from all segments of the affiliate marketing industry for networking and information-gathering sessions. About Affiliate Summit Affiliate Summit events occur several times each year and provide professionals within the ever-growing e-commerce industry an opportunity to come together to share knowledge, network and gain new opportunities. Affiliate Summit is fast becoming a necessary engagement for companies engaging in affiliate marketing. For more information, visit http://www.affiliatesummit.com. About PartnerCentric, Inc. PartnerCentric manages some of the most successful affiliate accounts in the industry, including National Geographic, Quicken Loans and dozens of other Fortune 500 clients. Headquartered in Santa Barbara, Calif., PartnerCentric specializes in working with e-commerce companies to build powerful Internet marketing strategies and profitable affiliate programs that generate effortless incremental revenue. For customer testimonials and more information, contact us at 805-569-8750 or via e-mail or visit our Web site at www.partnercentric.com. tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.100 2006-09-29T15:59:32Z 2006-09-29T16:01:27Z

A Couple of Chicks surveys over 250 hospitality industry professionals to create a first look at benchmarking tourism marketing and search web trends for 2007. Are you not quite sure if your website has been properly optimized, or disappointed in...

OMAstaff A Couple of Chicks surveys over 250 hospitality industry professionals to create a first look at benchmarking tourism marketing and search web trends for 2007. Are you not quite sure if your website has been properly optimized, or disappointed in your Pay per click results? Have you just found out the depressing news your online marketing budget for next year will be capped at around a 5% increase? Worse yet, have you been told you will not be given any more money to market online in 2007? If this sounds familiar don’t despair as unfortunately you are not alone! According to travel research giant PhoCusWright Inc., the total world travel market opportunity in 2005 was estimated to be around $900B, and with expectations that online travel bookings will grow at about four times the rate of the total travel market through 2007. It seems that the tourism industry is starting to show signs that they are aware – but not yet convinced that this trend should be reflected in their online marketing spending. Working with clients daily on their Optimization and Online Marketing efforts, we were answering many of the same questions and hearing some interesting comments, so we thought we would attempt to sew together some of the common themes as many begin preparation for 2007 budgets. A Couple of Chicks e-Marketing developed an online survey and recently invited over 250 Hospitality Industry Professionals to assist in this research. Responses were calculated anonymously by survey monkey; however we did include a place for the respondents to offer feedback. Summing up those comments, one respondent echoed a statement I have heard from many, “…even when our website was new, it wasn't properly optimized. I don’t think we knew what that was – or that we needed to do it. This makes it very difficult to be on the move against our competitors.” Have we reached a point where we need to stop and re-look at our marketing spending to ensure that we are ready for the growth in online travel sales? Search Engine Optimization: Survey Highlights - 56% of respondents plan on re-doing their website within the next 6 months regardless of how new or old it is! - The respondents who have optimized their website a solid third were not happy with the results…Yet 65% of them used an internal resource for SEO rather than an outside company. - A site must be properly optimized to be found by search engines- any time you change or add to your site remember to also optimize your tags so Search Engines can “read” your new content. Competing in the online arena or being “found in Google” is what it is all about now, and according to the survey results the majority of people have not been happy with the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) results they have seen thus far. Our audience was comprised of over half Hospitality Professionals with a small amount of Recreation, Non-profit and Government tourism websites. We were able to get an overall feel for what is going on as the participants ranged almost equally by CEO, Presidents, Sales, Marketing and Webmasters - all within the hospitality industry. An astounding 44% of the respondents claimed their websites were 5 years old or older. Followed closely by 30% falling into the 1-2 year category. Yet 56% planned on redoing their website within the next six months. Websites are almost becoming like computers, once you get one - it is almost instantly outdated. Somehow working off of a 5-year old site architecture can cause some problems as well. Depending on how your site was built, you may be held hostage by your original designer/webmaster to update any content on your site. However, be cautious not to just throw the old websites out to cyber-pasture. If it has survived the numerous algorithmic updates by the search engines, and has been building on its link popularity, you want to be cautious that the rankings you finally have achieved are maintained if you navigate over to a new platform. Solid rankings from an older site, and/or careful planned out updates can assist in your successful search optimization efforts. According to our survey, 56% of respondents feel their website has never even been optimized. Yet of the 44% who have optimized their site - a solid third reported they were not happy with the results. Just looking at raw data like this might lead you to believe there are a number of SEO companies out there not doing their job and have left a number of unhappy clients. However 65% claim they never have worked with an outside company and have mostly used someone internally to optimize the site. Perhaps this is a word to the wise to seek the help of a professional and acknowledge that there is skill and expertise to optimization. We should not expect that someone internally should have the time, knowledge or experience to handle an optimization project. The rules of the optimization game are continually changing. With every algorithm change, new technology and change in consumer search behavior, the search engines will continue to adapt and evolve their process of determining relevancy. The conclusion? Make sure that if you have not already, that there is room in your 2007 marketing budget to get your website found. Your un-optimized brochure site will slip further and further into the woods if you are not paying attention to search engine optimization best practices. It seems to me that it does not make much sense to take an already limited online budget (from what our respondents are reporting), and create a beautiful website that your customers may never see! Pay per Click: Survey Highlights - Only 27% of respondents participate in Pay per Click, with 94% advertising in Google and only 53% also advertising in Yahoo - 58% of participants are not happy with their PPC results, yet 63% only invest $1000 or less a month in this marketing medium. - Pay per Click can be a powerful advertising choice yielding a high ROI. An analytics program, such as Google Analytics, will provide the much needed assistance in maximizing your daily budget, whether it is minimal or more robust. I was pleased to see 73% of our survey participants felt they had identified their top 5-10 targeted search keywords for organic or paid search results and 89% knew who their 3 main competitors were within those keyword markets. I may point out here that the use of your top keywords needs to be incorporated in the back-end tags and descriptions, as well as within the front-end body content. You have to tell the search engines what keywords to look for with proper tags and descriptions. If you can’t work all those keywords into your website – or while you are waiting for your Organic Search Engine Optimization efforts to take shape - you can always run a Pay per Click Campaign against those keywords. For those who need a “Chick Translation,” Pay per Click or PPC allows advertisers to purchase keywords on Google, Yahoo and thousands of other search engines and only pay when a visitor clicks through to the site. I am a Google Certified Professional and have run many a PPC campaign over the years. There is certainly a benefit to participating in this very targeted advertising channel for those who can allocate the proper resources to use the channel effectively. As popular as PPC has become, 72% of our respondents still do not advertise here. What about the 27% that do participate? Not surprisingly Google wins hands down with 94% participating in Google Adwords, with Yahoo gaining momentum with 53% playing in the Yahoo Sponsored Search arena and newcomer MSN only capturing 17% of the market share. 58% of the PPC players are not happy with the results of their campaigns. Is this because a total of 62% are only able to invest a small monthly budget? (31.6% invest $1-$500 and 31.6% invest $500-$1000 a month) As a Google Certified Professional, I can understand how frustrating running these small campaigns can be. Google can swallow up a daily budget faster than Pac-man was able to eat those little dots! Yes I am dating myself here - but I think you get the point! If your daily budget is only $15.00 a day and with most bids averaging out to the dollar mark, the maximum traffic you can expect is 15 click-throughs a day. Depending on what your ROI is on that, or your “cost per acquisition” compared with other distribution channels like Expedia and other travel intermediaries – a PPC Ad campaign might be just what you are looking for! Many of my smaller PPC campaign budgets can be used up before most people take their first coffee break of the day. Thankfully one of the recent enhancements Google has added is the ability to time schedule your campaigns. This allows you to stretch a smaller budget and insure your ads are being shown during your prime selling time. Google, Yahoo and MSN also give you the ability to geo-target your advertising. If those running pay per click campaigns are doing so using proper Analytics tools – and/or through a certified pay per click account manager or agency, I am willing to bet that there would be many happy advertisers than what our survey results reported! And although many of our respondents have not yet tried running a pay per click marketing campaign, I am willing to bet that they are still running traditional print, radio or television ads where there is limited or no means to measure accurate return on ad spend. A PPC campaign might not be the only online marketing vehicle you should be exploring, but it could really work to drive some traffic and measurable revenues through need times. Some food for thought! Online Marketing Budgets: Survey Highlights - 14% of respondents feel they have no online marketing budget and 49% claim their online budget is less than 10% of their overall budget - Survey Results show 23% will not increase their online budgets for 2007 and an additional 23% will only increase by 1-5%. - Increasing your “online budget” does not necessarily mean increasing your entire marketing budget. Carefully examine your traditional print and marketing dollar allocation and look for opportunities to move funds to an online medium. When I casually inquire with clients about what their online marketing budget is, I am surprised how many don’t really know with certainty. (Or perhaps are afraid to tell me!) So when the results of the survey showed 14% of respondents felt they had no online marketing budget and 49.1% stated it fell between 1-10% of their overall budget, I was not surprised. In a world that has accepted the internet as one of its main resources for communication, research and purchases, the majority of us are still working with a traditional marketing budget that is not integrated to include the online medium. The challenge in this is we hear clients saying they are frustrated that they have no money or very little to invest in their online efforts. They need guidance on where to spend those coveted dollars in order to see the most bang for their buck. It’s discouraging to see clients spend an enormous amount of money on a print ad in a local paper that is a perishable investment and immediately disappears. The investments you make in online marketing can stay on the web forever. Based on our survey results I predict that 2007 will not be any better. We are quickly approaching budget time for most tourism operators, and yet 23% claim they will not increase their online budget at all, another 23% only by 1-5% and the majority at 33% only increasing by 5-10%. Perhaps a way to approach budgets this season is not looking at increasing the budget, but to start shifting offline dollars into the online budget - with an accurate way to benchmark successes for future planning. Does this sound at all familiar? I was reviewing the marketing budget for a hotel client that had a high percentage of dollars allocated toward a low yielding market segment. They had been perusing this market for over 5 years. They attended the major tradeshows; they bought extravagant gifts for decision makers, and placed full page print ads in market publications. These efforts cost them $50,000 a year. When I asked if they were still looking to grow this market, they replied, “No, we don’t want any more of these rooms, they are to low rated and we have all we need.” That’s when the light went off and money was suddenly “found” for online initiatives. I am not suggesting that dollars should not be allocated to markets/advertising channels that have traditionally been successful, but perhaps now is the time to shift some of those dollars slowly to other markets and other channels to lower the “cost per acquisition” or booking. Travel distribution channels have changed and expanded – have your marketing initiatives changed to compliment this trend? So what could be included in an online budget? Many tourism professionals are already playing in the online advertising space with banner ads, paid listings and pay per click advertising – but an online marketing budget should contain some additional line items. Part 2 of “Benchmarking web trends” will address the various components of an online marketing budget with some recommendations for a slow transition to a more integrated marketing approach, and some interesting findings from our survey results. About A Couple of Chicks: Patricia Brusha and Alicia Whalen are the co-founders of "A Couple of Chicks," a non-intimidating approach to Internet Marketing, e-Distribution & Revenue/Campaign Measurement. The “Chicks” specialize in using Creative, Distribution and Technology together to bring clarity to marketing on-line. To find out more about A Couple of Chicks Marketing and the tools and services, or to inquire about e-marketing workshops and online marketing consultation, visit www.acoupleofchicks.com. The Benchmarking Webtrends Survey was conducted online through Survey Monkey in July of 2006 in preparation for the Online Revealed Canada 2007 – the Canadian Online Travel Conference. The survey received participation from hospitality industry professionals in various capacities of tourism sales and marketing. A Couple of Chicks would like to thank all of the participants for their time in completing the survey. tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.99 2006-09-29T15:34:34Z 2006-09-29T15:50:09Z

Author: Bill Gerba on 2006-07-04 00:11:41 While many in our industry were focusing on of retail media measurement during these past few weeks, Google was busy thinking about how to measure media effectiveness as they deployed a new pay-per-action /...

OMAstaff Author: Bill Gerba on 2006-07-04 00:11:41 While many in our industry were focusing on of retail media measurement during these past few weeks, Google was busy thinking about how to measure media effectiveness as they deployed a new pay-per-action / cost-per-acquisition advertising experiment. Since we're frequently forced to use measurements of reach and recall as a proxy for ad effectiveness (since that's often all that we have), it would seem like the search giant's experiment could be a more accurate and direct way of calculating ROI for a particular message or campaign, which is really what we need to be looking at, in my opinion. Full Article ]]> tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.98 2006-09-29T15:32:04Z 2006-09-29T15:33:44Z

Cost Per Impression is a phrase often used in online advertising and marketing related to web traffic. It is used for measuring the worth and cost of a specific e-marketing campaign. This technique is applied with web banners, text links,...

OMAstaff Cost Per Impression is a phrase often used in online advertising and marketing related to web traffic. It is used for measuring the worth and cost of a specific e-marketing campaign. This technique is applied with web banners, text links, e-mail spam, and opt-in e-mail advertising. (Although opt-in e-mail advertising is more commonly charged on a CPA basis.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_Per_Impression]]> tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.97 2006-09-29T15:29:24Z 2006-09-29T15:31:50Z

Business Challenge: A major wireless phone carrier was facing increased challenges in conducting a successful Search Engine Marketing program, an arena where it had previously been very successful. The carrier market consolidated and resellers entered the picture, driving keyword search...

OMAstaff Business Challenge: A major wireless phone carrier was facing increased challenges in conducting a successful Search Engine Marketing program, an arena where it had previously been very successful. The carrier market consolidated and resellers entered the picture, driving keyword search prices up 35% in six months. This made it difficult for the carrier to continue advertising online efficiently. Search Marketing Challenge: Because search keyword prices were rising briskly, all aspects of the carrier’s search advertising campaign had to be optimized. Merely adjusting bid prices downward would not help; the carrier would be consistently outbid. As a result, it would get inferior placement on search results pages or no placement at all, and lose market share. Solutions: Predictability: Because of Fathom Online’s technically sophisticated infrastructure, the Fathom team proposed a CPA (cost per acquisition) strategy that would guarantee that the wireless carrier would receive a set number of orders at a predetermined cost. This meant that sales conversion rates could be roughly predicted an advertiser’s dream. Landing Page Optimization: Fathom extensively tested different landing pages and used different ones at different times to capitalize on the best opportunities. This offset rising keyword prices by increasing advertising conversion rates. Keyword Expansion: Fathom tested multiple keyword ranking strategies, determining which delivered more bang for the buck. It expanded the universe of applicable keywords, largely by adding local searches. This substantially trimmed search advertisement bidding prices and enhanced advertising opportunities. Partnership Value: Fathom integrated Efficient Frontier’s bid management technology to make an already-efficient keyword bid management system even more efficient. Results: In the first quarter of 2005, the carrier’s new campaign strategies produced 72% of the online advertising orders generated in all of 2004. And all orders generated from Fathom were profitable, despite rising keyword prices in the wireless category. tag:www.cpaanalyst.com,2006://4.96 2006-09-29T15:17:38Z 2006-09-29T15:20:32Z

Google, in an effort to boost the quality of its paid search engine results, inadvertently switched off the web site traffic to thousands of small business owners worldwide. This effectively shut down thousands of businesses. Now a solution that can...

OMAstaff Google, in an effort to boost the quality of its paid search engine results, inadvertently switched off the web site traffic to thousands of small business owners worldwide. This effectively shut down thousands of businesses. Now a solution that can drop cost per click 91% or more is available for free at http://www.Googleicious.com/freereport Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) August 31, 2006 -- "The Google Adwords system has been the most effective Pay Per Click advertising network since the day they began in 2000," says Landing Page Conversion Expert Mark Widawer "But the new Google Adwords Policy Change has resulted in an increase in the Cost Per Click -- that's the amount an advertiser pays when someone clicks on one of their ads -- sometimes from nickels and dimes to $5, $10 or more." The Google Adwords system has been the most effective Pay Per Click advertising network since the day they began in 2000 And that was Google's goal. They wanted to raise the price of a click for advertisers whose websites provided a "low-quality" experience for Google's own users, a technique that would effectively raise the quality of Google's overall paid search results. But Google doesn't reveal a step-by-step guide to achieve their definition of Quality, leaving many legitimate small business owners forced to either pay 100 times more for a website visitor, or to abandon Google Adwords and look to other traffic sources. Widawer discovered the 6-step "Recipe" that makes websites "delicious" to Google, consistent with the new Google Adwords policy. As Widawer said "I don't know any legitimate small business that can withstand an increase in customer acquisition costs of 100 times or more, so I tested what Google really means when they speak about 'Quality'." Widawer has published the results of his testing and more available via a 26-page Special Report: "6 Steps to Make Your Website Irresistible to Google's Spiders, Bots and Site Quality Detectives, And Drop Your Cost Per Click by 90% to 99% or more"' http://www.googleicious.com/freereport The typical release of such valuable Internet marketing information takes the form of everything from a $50 ebook to a course ranging from $100 to $500 or more. So why is the Googleicious Report Free? Widawer replied "Thousands of small businesses rely on Google Adwords for the bulk of their website's visitors. I think that small business owners have enough problems to worry about. I'm happy to relieve them of this one." Mr. Widawer is not affiliated with Google in any way, except for his accreditation as a Google Adwords Qualified Professional. Mark implemented the Googleicious recipe for his own websites, as well as for a few consulting clients. What emerged was a formula that can reliably determine, sometimes in a matter of moments, the techniques most effective for that particular website. It was mostly Direct Marketing websites -- used by most marketing-savvy small businesses -- that were the hardest hit by Google's new policy. And it is this type of web-based business that Mr. Widawer provides the greatest assistance. Widawer shared, "I believe my report '6 Steps to Make Your Website Irresistible to Google's Spiders, Bots and Site Quality Detectives, and Drop Your Cost Per Click by 90% to 99% or more' will help put thousands of small business owners back in business again." Mark Widawer is an Internet Marketer, public speaker on Internet Marketing, Google Adwords and Landing Pages, and the author of the "Landing Page Cash Machine" ebook, the defacto guide on converting website visitors into paying customers. For media inquiries, visit http://www.LandingPageCashMachine.com/media The Free Googleicious report is available for immediate download at: http://www.Googleicious.com/freereport