Us Brits do think we’re quite good at search engine marketing.
According to the IAB in 2009 over 60% of the £3,541m ad spend was on SEM. Some of the first bid-management tools were invented in the UK, and go to any search marketing conference in the world and you’re likely to find some British folks parachuted through the volcanic ash to lend their expertise to the discussions.
So when Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman from Search Engine Land decided to have an advanced conference under the Search Marketing Expo banner in London, it was bound to be a hit.
Icelandic rumblings meant a few speakers didn’t make it to the Connaught Rooms in Central London, and I only arrived after lunch because I was rearranging travel plans, but it was great to see the rooms were full of marketers hungry for the latest tips and tricks to get the edge over their competitors.
In the PPC tracks I attended, the emphasis was really on getting stuck right into the detail. Search marketing is traditionally very time-consuming. There are so many factors involved with setting up campaigns to be successful, whether it’s what keywords to pick, how to write the most effective ad copy and what you bidding strategy might be.
What all the speakers attempted to do with their advice was go a step further than the “set and forget” attitude many PPC marketers are forced to adopt because they simply don’t have the time to delve any deeper.
Craig Danuloff from Click Equations kicked off one session by saying, “Keywords don't matter, search queries do.”
His point was that sometimes we get a little carried away with obsessing on the keywords instead of thinking about how users are searching which reveals their true intent.
Throwing a bunch of keyword terms with the word “football” in them at an ad group isn’t all that clever as many of those terms will have different intents associated with them. Are people looking for tickets, boots, clubs, training courses or football-shaped birthday cake?
Craig said that you should mine keyword search terms to you can better target your ads which should lead to more relevant impressions, less waste, bigger click-through-rates and higher positions.
Jonathan Beeston from Efficient Frontier continued the theme, “Think of dimensions of what you sell and what your customers intent is.”
He gave a great example of these different dimensions by talking about the auto industry.
When it comes to selling cars most people would think about manufacturers and models, but when you layer in intent, you have to think about so many other parameters – do they want a dealer, private sale or auction? How do they want to pay – loan or lease? And how much do they want to pay – cheap, luxury or affordable?
Jon called out Microsoft adCenter’s Dynamic Keyword Insertion as a great way to capitalise on database driven inventory data.
Whether it’s pricing, discount information, place names or product model numbers, the more information you have, the more you should attempt to tailor the ad-copy to the exact product the user is searching for.
During the Quality Score panel I got asked by Anders Hjorth to talk a little bit about the search funnel tool on adLabs. It’s a great little bit of kit that lets you see the kind of keywords that get searched before and after a particular query.
I explained that the powerhouse built on the keyword services platform was the Microsoft Advertising Intelligence Tool and if people wanted some awesome KW data including demographic and trend predictions, that’s where they should go.
The final session was all about the Microsoft & Yahoo! Search Alliance.
Kevin Kyer from Yahoo! was up first explaining the thinking behind the deal and what it means for advertisers. He was keen to let delegates be reassured that, “the benefits of the alliance lie in Volume, Convenience, Innovation & Relationship."
The other speakers - Kevin Ryan, Anders Hjorth and Richard Gregory all spoke positively about the deal. The market needs the competition, and they’re confident Microsoft will deliver the innovation needed to compete in the space.
Richard Gregory explained why it was worth marketers’ while to consider the smaller search networks because of the incremental reach, conversion rates and extra targeting capability.
Yes there were concerns about transitioning accounts, yes there were concerns about how long it may take for the transition to happen globally, but as Carolyn wrote on the 6th of May, we’re committed to a high quality transition experience for all our customers, and will keep them informed in detail every step of the way.
More from SMX London tomorrow!
Cheers
Mel