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Pubcon - Las Vegas 05 - Bridging the Gap: Search Query to Conversion - Brad Geddes
More Local Search Data from comScore
Some more local search data was recently released by comScore. I was going to pull out all the local data to present to my readers, but Greg Sterling at Kelsey Blog has already done the work I was going to do.
comScore separately breaks out IYP usage (231,678,352 lookups in 8/05). Here’s the percentage breakdown of the data:
Yahoo! Sites—27.6%
Verizon Communications Corporation — 25.5%
Google Sites—11.6%
YellowPages.com—7.7%
Time Warner Network—7.6%
InfoSpace Network—7.0%
DexOnline.com—5.0%
SBC Communications—2.4%
Citysearch—2.4%
Yell—1.6%
BellSouth—1.4%
Ask Jeeves—0.2%
No need to repeat the same information, so for full commentary, see Greg’s Blog.
Backing Up Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is my favorite email program, but when it comes to backing up files, it can be a little tricky. There are three major aspects of Microsoft Outlook that you need to consider.
Microsoft Outlook PST File
The main file in Outlook is called a .pst file. This includes calendar, contact, tasks, journal, notes, and all your folders. This folder can grow quite large, and might need cleaning out before you back it up. My last backup of a cleaned .pst file was a little over 3. 7 gigs (hence why I don’t use GMail), so I had to zip it before I could burn it to DVD.
The first thing to consider is if you want to delete all the items in your deleted items folder. Cleaning out this folder can quite easily save a lot of disk space. If you now realize that you want to save deleted emails from particular senders this is the time to make a new rule. If you wish to save all the deleted items, then archive them.
To archive a folder, click on: File > Archive. Click the deleted items folder, then OK. This will cause these files to take up less space, yet more time if you need to access them in the future. You can choose to archive only items older than X months so recent items are quickly accessible.
Next, consider deleting or archiving your Sent Items Folder. This folder, over time, can start to accumulate thousands of emails in it. If you want to save sent messages to a particular person, look at the Microsoft Outlook Rules page for instructions.
Look at Journal and Tasks. Archive items over X months old. To archive these folders, you can also right click on the folder, choose properties. Click on the archive tab, and then select the date you want to archive items older than. Here you also have the option of deleting these older items instead of archiving them.
Now it’s time to back up our .pst file. Click file > import & export. Select export to a file, click next. Select Personal File Folder (.pst), click next. Highlight Personal Folders, and then check the Include Subfolders box.
Click desktop > My Documents. Right click, select new folder. Make a folder called Outlook. This is where we’re going to save all our backup information. Now choose a file for it to be exported to. I would suggest saving backup folders by date and select allow duplicate items to be created. This way you can backup your files, and then delete the 3rd oldest backup. Just in case, I keep two backups on my computer. Now click finish. Your .pst backup folder for Microsoft Outlook email software was just created.
You now have a copy of all your email folders, journal entries, notes, and tasks, but what about rules and accounts? Nope, they weren’t backed up, those are separate files.
The Rules Wizard in Microsoft Outlook Email Software
To back up the Rules Wizard, make sure the folder highlighted is an email folder.
Now click Tools > Rules Wizard. Click Options. Click Export Rules.
Browse to the Outlook folder in My Documents where we just saved the .pst file above. Name the rules the current date so you know which rules file goes with which .pst file, and click save. That was nice and easy, and we’re almost done backing up all our Microsoft Outlook information
Backing up Accounts in Microsoft Outlook
Most people have 3-5 email accounts, some have only one, and others have over 50. This can be a lot of information to save, and a lot of passwords you don’t want to remember and reenter all the time. These email accounts are easy to back up, but we must do them all individually.
- Again, make sure the highlighted folder is an email folder. Click tools > account. Highlight an email account, and click export.
- Browse to the Outlook folder in My Documents where we’ve saved everything else, and click save.
- Repeat this for each of your accounts.
- We’re Done backing up Microsoft Outlook
Congratulations, you now have backup files for all your Outlook information. If you need to move information from work to home, or just save it in case of emergency, you can now use CD Burning Software and have a permanent record of your Outlook information.
Profit by Impression : The real metric in PPC testing
The current success measurements for PPC split testing are woefully inadequate. Each metric only gives a portion of the story, they do not actually tell you the entire story.
There are three measurements that truly matter:
- Profit
- Profit by Impressions
- Profit by Click
Profit is a metric for an entire campaign (more below).
Profit by click/impression should be the success metrics for split testing.
In split testing one wants to determine what ad copy, landing page, keywords, etc are providing the best value for your site. The reason profit alone does not matter with split testing is that often all of your tests do not receive the same exposure, therefore you’re metrics could be skewed by a single ad or landing page receiving too much exposure, receiving a high ROI, but poor CTR, etc. In split testing you are learning about your advertising - not making final decisions.
The entire conversion process start at the search query. Not the click. Not the page view. Not the sale. In order to understand the entire chain of search query to ad copy view to click to landing page to conversion one has to use two new metrics: Profit by Impression (PBI) & Profit by Click (PBC).
Consider the current success metrics:
CTR (click through rate) only measure how many people click on your ad. It does not measure conversion rate or profits.
Average CPC (cost per click) only measures what you pay for a click, again, there is no conversion data associated with this metric.
Conversion rate is a percentage of how many people converted compared to saw your landing page. It does not include CTR, CPC (cost per click), ad spend or even profit margin.
Cost per conversion tells you how much it cost you to have a visitor perform a specific action. It does not include how many people converted, the conversion percentage, or even the ad’s click through rate.
ROI (Return on Investment) / ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)-These are percentage metrics of profit compared to costs. They do not incorporate click through rate, conversion percentage, or ad views.
Profit should be a metric that looks at a campaign holistically. If you want to look at individual parts of a campaign, you should also look at individual parts of the profit. (If looking at an entire campaign, please read:Forget ROI: Show me the Profits)
Each of the above metrics is just that, a metric. One piece of information in a sea of statistics.
Let’s consider the entire PPC process.
The search process starts when a consumer has a question to be answered. This could be anything from where do I buy shoes to exploring vacation options. At this point, the searcher forms an idea of what to look for. This idea is translated into keywords, or a search query. After inputting a query into a search engine, the searcher is presented with a set of search results (which include ads). At this moment, your ability to make a conversion has already started.
When your ad is triggered, it’s considered an impression. At the moment your ad has a statistical impression, it also has the ability to connect with the searcher.
The searcher will then make a decision: to click your ad, to click another option on the page, or just search again if they don’t see something that appears to answer the question they are asking.
This is the first metric that needs to be taken into account: impressions (when your ad is presented to a searcher).
If your ad makes a connection with the searcher, then he will click your ad. The act of clicking on an add then triggers two metrics that must be taken into account:
- CTR: The number of clicks divided by impressions
- CPC: Your CPC (cost per click)
When CTR & CPC are taken as a whole between all visitors, you can determine:
- Total ad cost
- Average CTR
- Average CPC.
A visitor then arrives on your landing page (the page on your website that you’ve designated to be connected with particular ad), this triggers yet another statistic: page view.
When a searcher inputs a search query, she has certain expectations of information. If your ad meets that expectation, the user will click your ad resulting in a page view. At this point in time, your landing page must meet the searchers expectations. If your page does not meet expectations, she will not follow the action you wish her to take.
If your page meets his expectation and has the proper landing page elements to convince him to follow your action, he will be considered a conversion (A conversion is a predetermined action that measures the success of your advertising campaign. It could be a sale, a download, a contact, etc).
When someone converts on you landing page, this sets off another slew of metrics:
- Conversion rate (page views divided by conversions)
- Cost per conversion (number of conversions divided by ad spend)
- ROI/ROAS (sales amount divided by ad spend - if you’re not an ecommerce site, you need to determine the value of a contact, download, etc in calculating these statistics).
Each one of these is still just a statistic. Let’s think about the consumer, the one who ultimately determines the success of your campaign.
A consumer’s conversion process contains a list of expectations:
- Search query results - expecting certain results to examine to answer a question
- Ad copy information - sets an expectation for the consumer about what’s on the website
- Landing page information - consumer has an expectation based on search query and ad copy, if this is not met, the consumer will leave. The ad copy and keyword query sets the expectation.
Each of those expectations plays off one another. The search query has an affect on the ad’s CTR. The ad copy has an effect on the page’s conversion rate. The ad’s cost per click has an effect on the total ad cost and ROI. The landing page has an effect on conversion rates. The entire process is interrelated. If you cut off any part of the formula, you are not taking into account the entire search to conversion process.
Since the conversion cycle starts with the impression, this is where the calculation of profit margins should also begin.
Let’s consider the below chart. This chart is based upon a fixed fee $25 per sale. It’s also based on testing 5 (A-E) different scenarios.
A ’scenario’ is a set of values you are testing.. This could be:
- 5 different tag lines
- 5 different titles
- 5 completely different ads
- 5 different ads going to 5 different landing pages
- 1 ad going to 5 different landing pages
- etc.
Don’t feel limited by what you can test. You can test anything. It’s a matter of understanding the metrics after you’ve run a test that is important to learn.
Highlighted in Red is the top performing row for each statistic.
In this chart, there are two obvious winners:
- Test A for profit by click
- Test C for profit by impression
It is important to note, neither of these columns are the tops in terms of CTR, Sales, ROI, Conversion Rate or Cost per Conversion.
Why did they win this test if they aren’t tops for any of those statistics?
Simple, those statistics only tell part of the story. Test B has the lowest cost per conversion, the highest ROI, the lowest average CPC. In most scenarios, people would consider that a winner. However, when we look at how much the tests make per click (per visit) the test doesn’t win out because of how the entire conversion process takes place: search query to click to landing page to conversion.
Test C is a clear winner in profit by impression.
It is also important to note, if the above numbers were entire campaigns and not a test (i.e. the results were a campaign in it’s entirety being measured by it’s performance) then Test D would be a clear winner due to it’s profit margin.
If we received the above results on a test, what would be the next step?
There are a few answers:
- Analyze Test A to see if there is a way to bring in more clicks.
- Analyze Test C to see if there is a way to bring in more impressions.
- Analyze the statistical winner to learn why they won that metric.
- Can Test B tell us how to get more impressions?
- Can Test E tell us how to convert visitors?
- Can Test D tell us how to get more clicks?
- Etc…
- Put together a strategy for A & C based on the numbers (let the numbers tell the story. Theory is great, but eventually, numbers will give you facts)
- Repeat test.
- Measure new results.
- Repeat.
When running a test, one has to both understand when a variable is the best to reuse, but also why certain variables won individual metrics (i.e. why an ad has a high CTR, why a landing page has a high conversion rate, etc). By combining the Profit By Click and Profit By Impression winners with the knowledge of why the other variables preformed best in specific metrics then one can leverage the entire testing statistics in putting together new ads, landing pages, and tests.
The above test was run with a static item cost ($25). For many sites, the total order and average order amount will also be statistics you wish to measure.
In the below chart, the base numbers are the same, the only number that was changed was Sales $$. This is the combined value of all the sales made during the test period. Of course, if the sales value is changed, the profit margin will also be affected. Average sale was added as a metric.
The above numbers can be analyzed just like the first chart above. It’s important to show how average sale and total sales can affect the test. The two previous winners are no longer the top performing tests. Test D, which only won on CTR earlier, is the clear Profit by Impression winner. Test E is the clear Profit by Click Winner.
In this scenario, besides the information that we already walked through that needs to be analyzed, there is an emerging trend. Test E is full of converting traffic (which could be the keywords, ad copy that speaks only to buyers, etc). Determining why it has such a great conversion rate and then applying those results to Test D (which has the higher CTR, 3rd lowest CPC, 2nd highest conversions, 2nd highest sales, 2nd highest avg sale, highest profit) would bring about some pretty significant changes and improvements.
These tests are but two simple scenarios in a sea of online metrics. One could easily add page views per visitor, time spent on site per keyword,Value of a Lifetime Customer, catalog requests, etc. Metrics are easy to add, what’s important is assigning a dollar amount to those metrics. Determine what a phone call is worth, what a catalog request brings in sales, what an email does for your bottom line. Determine not only what action you want someone to take - but what that value is to your company.
Conclusion
Profit by impression (PBI) and Profit by Click (PBC) are the best metrics to determine when split testing ad copy or landing pages. One can determine profit by impression/click numbers by individual line of an ad copy, by the entire ad copy, by landing page, etc.
When split testing, think about the actual goal: sales. By understanding how each line of an ad interacts with a landing page and with a search query, by understanding how a landing page is affected by a keyword, by understanding how a keyword interacts with a specific ad, by understanding all of your metrics you can finally determine which is the proper combination to be running.
If you know these statistics:
- Impressions
- Clicks
- Cost of ad campaign
- Conversions
- Sales $$
You can derive these statistics:
- Click through rate (CTR)
- Average cost per click (CPC)
- Conversion rate
- Cost per conversion
- Average sale
- Profit
- ROI
- ROAS
- Profit by Click
- Profit by Impression
These are elements in a PPC campaign that you control. If you can measure it and understand the metric, you can change it. Knowledge of metrics is key. Knowledge of what to do with the metrics is crucial.
Profit by Impression & Profit by Click might be a new concept in the world of PPC advertising; however, it’s a concept I’ve been successfully using for several years.
Only by understanding how the entire PPC cycle works, from query to ad copy to click to landing page to user action can one really understand the value of advertising.
Understand the value. Measure the value. Improve the value.
Three simple steps to successful advertising.
Local Data Providers - Who Powers Who
Understanding where various information for IYPs (internet yellow pages) and local search engines is crucial to making sure your local business data is current and accurate on the web.
Do these engines know:
- Your business hours
- Your current phone number
- Your current address
- Your delivery/service area
- Your certifications
- Etc, etc
Here’s a brief table of who powers who:
| Search Service | Data Provider |
| Google Local | InfoUSA |
| Yahoo! Local | InfoUSA |
| iWon.com | InfoUSA |
| InfoSpace | Acxiom |
| IYP Service | Data Provider |
| Yahoo Yellow Pages | InfoUSA |
| Lycos YP | Acxiom |
| Verizon SuperPages | Acxiom |
| SBC SmartPages | InfoUSA |
| Bell South Real Pages | Acxiom |
| Switchboard | InfoUSA |
| Dogpile YP | Acxiom |
| WebCrawler YP | Acxiom |
| MSN Yellow Pages | Acxiom |
| A9 Yellow Pages | Acxiom |
| AOL Yellow Pages | InfoUSA |
| Excite YP | Acxiom |
While it might look like there are just a few places, updating your business information directly with Acxiom, InfoUSA, and other large data aggregators is almost impossible for a small business. These providers often deal with Vertical players who have tens of thousands of business records at a time.
Finding how to update your information on Yahoo, Google, Switchboard, etc is a very time consuming process.
It’s very difficult to fix this information by going directly to the providers. An easier way to make sure that all your information on the web is current is to use a data service like Register Local.
This service populates your local data to roughly 50 different properties directly.
The other advantage to a service like this is that you can update your information in a single place and the service will change it across the web without you having to find every single IYP and Local Search Engine that has your incorrect information to update it.
Making sure your customers find your accurate business information is critical to maintaining and growing your customer base.
Making sure your business information on the web is accurate is a very difficult process.
Register Local is quietly changing the data provider business by allowing individual businesses to control their own data.
Data is knowledge.
Knowledge is power.
Give the power back to the small businesses.
Control your own business information.
Windows Live Classifieds
Greg is reporting that Live will soon contain classifieds.
He’s got the full scoup.
AdWords Test: Showing Ads at the Bottom of SERPs
AdWords is often conducting limited tests. Seo Roundtable caught a screenshot of one of the tests where Google is showing ads at the bottom of the SERPs, similar to what Yahoo does on their search result pages.
It’s pretty common to catch a glimpse of tests, such as the Google Click to Call.
Most of the tests are never implemented, but as their revue is based upon advertising, the mantra is test to see what users like.
Screen shots here.
Google adds Cafe in Heathrow
I’ve always thought that Microsoft and Starbucks would make great partners. One has the software, the other the mobile users. By combining MS apps with Starbucks wireless, they could make a very interesting consumer base together.
That was a few years ago. Since then, Cingular and Sony teamed up to provide internet connection to a laptop (like my Sony Vaio VGN-T370P) no matter where I am, as long as I have a cell phone signal.
The original concept I talked about years ago with the combination of coffee and wireless by an internet based company seems to have been applied by Google.
ZDnet reports :
Google has taken its first foray into the physical world with the launch of an Internet cafe-style computing booth in London’s Heathrow Airport.
The temporary installation, termed Google Space, consists of ten Samsung laptops in the public lounge of Terminal One at London’s main airport.
This is a very interesting move by Google, and will be watched closely.
Are they providing internet access to airplane passengers.
Or are they really looking to talk to business travelers about internet advertising.
Or recruiting for the new London Office.
The integration of internet service and AdWords recruitments is, of course, speculation. But if it potential advertisers come to you, it makes it a whole lot easier on the sale.
Tracking AdSense with Google Analytics
Aaron has a post about tracking AdSense click throughs with Google’s Urchin Analytics.
I haven’t tested it yet, it’s on the list of things todo. If someone gets a chance to see exactly how it works, and if it’s hackable to tracking other types of exit clicks (banners, YPN, etc), please let me know.
Digital point is also working on one, but doesn’t seem to work with Mozilla.
Google Testing Click to Call
Google’s testing out a Pay Per Call solution.
Look for a small phone icon next to the PPC ads.
It’s been long speculated they would at least test it out. Google’s mantra: Test it out, see if it works, if yes, then implement, if no, then just call it a limited test.
This seems to follow that same pattern with a limited test.
Google FAQs here.
Google Privacy Policy Here.
Full story here.
Some Info at ReveNews.
Google AdWords
Seminars for Success
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These seminars will educate advertisers on the creation and management of successful AdWords campaigns.
Upcoming Seminars:
Phoenix AdWords Seminars January 22nd & 23rd
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Learn More about the Seminars:
Seminar Information
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