Feed Your Brain, Part III: Advanced Analytics
Well ad:tech saved some of the best for last here at ad:tech New York. In part III of 'Feed Your Brain' two presentations were featured and each explored how advanced analytics can be leveraged to optimize organic search. The presenters are as follows:
- Amir Ashkenazi, CEO and Co-Founder, Adap.tv Inc.
- Richard Zwicky, President & Founder, Enquisite, Inc.
- Ryan DeShazer, Global Director of Search Marketing, GyroHSR
- Larry Weitzman, Chief Content Officer, CineSport
- Teg Grenager, Co-Founder and VP, Product and Marketing, Adap.tv
Richard Zwicky started revealing some key findings when analyzing companies advertising spend online for paid search vs. SEO. Folks aren't investing in SEO or organic optimization because it hasn't been measurable or 'accountable' in the past. This has caused a significant imbalance in the SEM marketplace. Consider this:
- Organic search generates over 90% of referrals, yet captures less than 5% of budgets!
- $39 billion is spent on paid search whereas only $1.48 billion is spent on organic optimization
- 92% of referral traffic comes from organic search
- Put another way, SEO drive 11.5 x the number of visits compared to PPC yet receives 32.3x less budget.
- Of the top 1000 Fortune companies, 80% had paid search initiatives, yet only 50 had an organic optimization component.
The Challenge of SEO
Ryan DeShazer talks a bit about the challenges for companies when it comes to SEO. Is it a marketing channel? Is it web application development? Is it public relations? The simple answer is it is digital marketing and can positively influence all channels of your business and performs best when its held accountable through analytics and proper measurement.
Analytics has made SEO measurable and is the source by which we learn where to invest, how to invest and where to find our consumers online. Because of analytics, we are starting to see that going after and optimizing for non-brand terms can actually build your brand online as your company name begins to be associated with those broader terms.
The Ranking Report is Dead
The ranking report has become meaningless when it comes to measuring SEO. Personalized search and behavioral targeted search has made the search results for one user completely unique when compared with another. As a result the ranking report becomes useless because they lack context. Ryan DeShazer still runs reports for clients but the reporting should go well beyond position. Look for ROI per position, share of voice and other metrics that are more impactful to the bottom line.
How Do We Achieve SEO Success?
The panel offered some very simple insights into achieve success around your optimization efforts.
- Hold your SEO efforts accountable by attaching dollar numbers to the results and getting in-depth analytics in place
- Optimize for performance vs simply going for position #1.
- Identify goals early and measure closely against those metrics (both macro and micro)
- Lastly and most important, pick keyword battles you can win. Research the competition and know how competitively you can compete!
Well, that about wraps up our coverage here at ad:tech. Be sure to check out more of our coverage of ad:tech New York 2009 and stay tuned for more in-depth coverage of future shows!