An Introduction To Remarketing

I recently reviewed an awesome PPC Associates eBook about going after the Wide Tail of SEM (I highly recommend reading it). One of the themes of the wide tail is going after all channels within online marketing. One exciting channel, display, has a really cool tactic known as remarketing, also called retargeting. Today, I will give a quick introduction to remarketing and how you can get involved in this exciting marketing channel.

What Is Remarketing?

Target Market

The concept is quite simple. Let’s say a customer comes to your website. They look around a bit (and maybe even place some items in their shopping cart). However, they leave without buying anything. This is a highly qualified customer. They were so close to making a purchase, but weren’t quite ready. Perhaps they wanted to do more research. Perhaps they didn’t have their credit card on them. Perhaps they were just not ready to buy.

Before the invention of remarketing, you had no easy way to reach out this customer, unless they had created and account on your site (entering their email address). This is quite unfortunate because marketing costs money. You paid to get that customer to your site, but they left without making a purchase. Remarketing changes all of this. All you have to do is place remarketing pixels on your website. Then, you can target those customers who visited your site without converting, via display advertisements across the Internet. Let’s say someone who visited your site without converting is browsing the Yahoo! homepage or perhaps CNN. Your remarketing banner could show up, entice them to click through back to your site, and then convert!

Remarketing Is Getting More Sophisticated

A few years back, remarketing was relatively simple. You didn’t have a ton of options. However, these days things are evolving quickly. Because of the quick evolution, I recommend working with a company such as AdMedia that can help you with strategy (make sure to check out their Remarketing Advertising Solutions). How is remarketing getting more sophisticated? I see a few trends.

First, more and more platform options exist. There are a sea of remarketing platforms. I recommend auditioning them all and then choosing the one that meets your needs the best.
Second, people are now leveraging more inventory sources than ever before. I’m talking about RTBs, directly negotiated inventory, and big display networks such as the Google Display Network (GDN). More remarketing sources means more inventory and more options to connect with your customer.
Third, I see the creatives getting more complex and more dynamic.
Fourth, I see remarketing platforms embrace sophisticated bidding algorithms. This is right up the alley of the PPC pro who is used to a platform like Marin Software, Kenshoo, or Acquisio.

When you get into remarketing, make sure to take your time to pick the right vendor and craft a comprehensive strategy. Really think it through.

A Cost Effective Strategy

Results really differ by company. However, from auditing the industry and speaking with those who run remarketing campaigns, I generally hear good things about this marketing strategy. One word of caution: Don’t measure the results of your display and remarketing campaigns based on “view through” conversions. It’s always better to use click through conversions. If remarketing works on a CPA basis for you on a click through basis, you have a brand new marketing channel that will help raise your site’s conversion rate. You will target those customers you already paid to attract to your site, via marketing dollars. Remarketing is your tool to get the most out of your overall marketing dollars. Have you tried remarketing yet?

Image of Target Market © iStockPhoto – alexskopje

My Weekend Musings (5th Edition)

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 23 1

It’s been a while since my last weekend musings post, the 4th edition was all the way back in April. So, I thought it would be the prefect time for another weekend musings post! Following are some of the big things going on in my world…

Time For Me

PPC Ian is now a registered trademark of my company, IJL Productions LLC. I’m thrilled, it’s the first trademark that I own and represents my goal of continuing to go really big with PPC Ian! I truly appreciate each and every person who takes the time to read my blog, thanks so much.
Nicole and I had dinner with a great friend tonight who we had not seen for a year! Time passes by so fast, especially in the world of online marketing. Make sure to take time for the important people in your life. It’s all about friends and family.
This weekend, I’m working most of the weekend. I have a big presentation on Monday and want to make sure it’s perfect. I worked half of the weekend last weekend too. It’s all about doing your best and going above and beyond in your online marketing career. Next weekend will be my time to take some time off!
I own a portfolio of websites and recently did some important housekeeping items that have improved user experience and also organic traffic. A few weeks ago, I spent the entire weekend auditing each site and doing the following…
1. I removed all non-converting affiliate links. Even though the links were marked as “nofollow”, I saw no reason to keep such links if the were not driving sales.
2. I made sure all links worked. I corrected or removed broken links. I found lots of them. I also made sure to check the websites I linked to. Some of them were gone and were simply parked pages. I made sure to remove such links, as they are no longer of value to the user.
3. I updated all copyright notices to say “Copyright XYZ Date – 2012”. Many of them had only been updated through 2011 or in some cases 2010. The combination of these efforts seems to be helping quite a bit. My traffic is steadily increasing and also my AdSense earnings are up about 25% over the last few weeks.
It’s important to simplify your life and focus on those things that are truly important. This type of framework can help both at work and at home, it’s a big productivity and peace of mind booster. Recently, I dropped a lot of domains. I’m even dropping domains that have built websites, if they are not earning good money each year. Why keep domains/websites that don’t pay for themselves (and that I have no intent/ability to sell for a profit)? Such domains/websites are liabilities, not assets. This move has helped clear my mindshare while also boosting profits. It’s just like paid search optimization, you need to invest in your winners and cut your losers.
PPC tip of the week: Make sure to ask your search engine reps about beta tests. Beta tests are a great way to stay ahead of the curve and embrace new technologies before anyone else. Moreover, betas often offer a discounted (or even free) way to test features that may later cost money.

Image of Time For Me © iStockPhoto – donskarpo

It’s All About The Wide Tail of SEM

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 21 3

I’m a huge fan of PPC Associates, one of the best SEM Agencies around. PPC Associates took the Silicon Valley by storm earlier this year with their Billboards on 101, one of my favorite offline marketing campaigns of this year. Over the last few years, I’ve gotten to know David Rodnitzky (CEO of PPC Associates) quite well, and I’m here to say that he is a true leader in our industry. This all brings me to the topic of today’s post: My review of Introducing the Wide Tail of SEM eBook.

I’m a big proponent of reading eBooks and whitepapers about online marketing. The beauty of our industry is smart people are always willing to share their perspectives and insights. Via their eBook series, PPC Associates does just that. Here’s what to expect in their wide tail eBook:

An explanation of why the long tail is losing its power, except in a few rare exceptions.
The emergence of the wide tail and how it differs from the long tail.
How savvy marketers are changing their perspective from the long tail to the wide tail.
Several trends that comprise the new wide tail phenomenon.
Best practices for managing the wide tail.
13 pages packed full of SEM insights.

I really enjoyed this eBook because the content is great and because it’s a well-written quick read. I recommend taking some time today to download and read Introducing the Wide Tail of SEM. It’s free!

Image in this post © PPCAssociates.com

Tips For Landing SEM Jobs

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 17 4

Right now, my team is hiring! If you’re looking for an SEM Job (located in Mountain View, California for candidates with 0-1 years SEM experience), please feel free to contact me with your resume and cover letter.

As such, I thought it would be the perfect time to share some tips for landing SEM jobs. While this guide is geared towards landing your first SEM job, it will also help with later stage jobs too. I wrote a post a while back about Landing Your First PPC Job. I recommend reading that post first, since this one builds upon it. I’m the biggest proponent of the SEM career path around. Best of luck in landing your SEM dream job!

Tip 1: Demonstrate Your Analytical and Math Skills

Hired

SEM is one of the most analytical jobs around. Ideal candidates are incredibly strong at complex puzzles. In this stage of the SEM game, competition is paramount. The only way to win is taking a numbers-driven approach and building complex programs that outsmart the competition. While SEM involves a huge number of skills, the data-driven analytics approach is most important.

So, how do you demonstrate your analytical and math skills? One easy way is choosing a college major such as engineering, computer science, economics, or business. (This was one of the top tips from my last post on the topic.) However, let’s say you pursued more of a liberal arts major or just want to go above and beyond? Some other tips include: securing an analytical internship (such as investment banking), making it clear in your interviews that you are great at math (make a conscious point to convey your skills), and becoming an Excel guru (and bringing in examples of your work). Paid search requires a strong, expert-level understanding of Excel. If you’re able to do this before you even start your first SEM job, you will be golden!

Bonus Tip: Make sure you really enjoy data and numbers before pursuing PPC. If you are not as interested in numbers, no problem at all! You have to be realistic with yourself. In that case, I would consider alternative career paths within online marketing. There exist online marketing career paths (other than PPC) that can be a bit less heavy on the numbers/spreadsheets such as business development and social media.

Tip 2: Assemble A Marketing Portfolio

I always respect a well-prepared candidate. Go the extra mile and assemble a marketing portfolio. This may be difficult if you’re new to SEM, but not impossible. Following are a few ideas… Get out there and try some affiliate marketing. Build some sites, craft landing pages, and buy some paid traffic. Bring in the results, but also screenshots of your sites and campaigns. Or, consider starting a blog. Blogging teaches you so much about online marketing, especially social media. As part of your blog experiment, run some paid “like” campaigns on Facebook. Bring in some printouts of the results. Another idea: Study big brand online marketing campaigns and bring in some printouts of your favorite examples. While this wouldn’t be your own work/portfolio, it clearly shows that you love marketing and went the extra mile to prepare. At the end of the day, it’s all about getting creative and arriving prepared. Also, blogging/affiliate marketing can help jobs “come to you” since you will be building a brand for yourself online.

Tip 3: Complete A Campaign Audit

Building upon the last point, I always recommend arriving at interviews prepared. Take a look at the PPC campaigns of the company you’re interviewing at. While you won’t have access to their AdWords account, you will be able to perform a cursory audit by searching on Google, checking out landing pages, and looking for opportunities. Get creative with it. Perhaps you also look at SEO and social media (these are easier to audit with the data available to you). Just be careful to demonstrate that you’re primary focus is paid search. These types of audits will not only show that you’re prepared but they’ll also sharpen your PPC skills. Not sure what to audit? New to PPC? Start reading eBooks and whitepapers (I cover many of them here on PPC Ian).

Bonus Tip: Don’t have any interviews lined up yet? First identify the employers you’re interested in. Then, consider sending your audit (or at least a summary of it) with your resume and cover letter. It’s all about going above and beyond!

PPC as a career is a truly fun journey. I hope these tips help in your PPC job search and interview process!

Image of Hired © iStockPhoto – VCTStyle

I’m Honored To Be A Marin Software Celebrity

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 13 5

Today truly was my day! It all started when my good friend Matt Lawson, VP of Marketing at Marin Software, sent me an email this morning. He asked me to check out the brand new Marin Software homepage. So, I headed on over to Marin and could not believe what I saw! I really couldn’t!

So, what did I see? There’s a big picture of me right in the middle of the Marin homepage, with a link to my Marin Software video testimonial. Head on over to Marin and check it out for yourself. Also, you can see a screenshot below (click it to see the full-sized version). I’m so honored. Marin Software is one of the best SEM automation platforms around. I personally leverage their platform each and every day to optimize and manage large scale SEM campaigns. I’ve been a Marin Software power user for years and cannot say enough great stuff about Marin, their technology, and their team. Thanks so much, Marin, this is a true honor! And, congratulations on your new homepage, it rocks.

Image in this post © Marin Software

More Money Saving Tips For PPC Professionals

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 13 3

I’m really focused on saving money this year, it’s one of my top goals. Just a few posts ago, I highlighted Ways For PPC Professionals To Save Money. Since there are so many great ways to save money, especially through the lens of the PPC professional, I wanted to follow up my prior post with some more money saving tips today!

Tip 1: Let Unnecessary Domain Names Drop

Save Vs. Spend

If you’re a paid search professional, there’s a very high probability you own some domain names. If you don’t, I would at least recommend registering your own name. Even if you are the best domain name investor ever, you will probably have some unnecessary names in your portfolio. Don’t feel bad. Even the most respected domain investors around, such as much friend Morgan Linton, have registered domains that they have later dropped. In fact, Morgan dropped a good percentage of the domains he registered in his first year domaining, realizing that his strategy needed to evolve.

So, how do you choose which domains to drop? While everyone’s model will be different, I’m dropping domains that meet two criteria. Criteria 1: The domain has no intrinsic “equity” resale value. Criteria 2: I have no plans to develop/monetize the domain. Also, on occasion, I will drop a domain I’ve developed that is not monetizing well. Registrars make a ton of money on annual renewal fees. Your domain name is a lifetime stream of recurring income to the registrar. Drop your unneeded domains and save yourself hundreds/thousands over the years! I’ve dropped many domain names this year and am happy to save the money and simplify my portfolio.

Tip 2: Always Leverage GoDaddy Coupon Codes

This tip ties into the last one. If you’re an online marketing professional, you likely own domain names. It’s also quite likely that your domains are registered with GoDaddy, the Internet’s leading registrar. When renewing your domains (or other GoDaddy products), always check your email for coupon codes. I receive coupon codes each week and always make use of them. You can save a substantial amount of money over they years by refusing to pay full price and always utilizing GoDaddy coupon codes.

Bonus tip: GoDaddy experienced some network issues on September 10th. If you have hosting account(s) with GoDaddy, you should get an email regarding a credit. Make sure to follow the instructions in the email to redeem your GoDaddy in-store credit. I just redeemed my credits!

Tip 3: Don’t Forget To File Expense Reports

As a corporate professional, you are likely in incur expenses on your personal credit card related to work. I’m talking about mileage to company events, business usage of your personal cell phone (voice/data plan), team business lunches (where you paid for everyone), lunches with clients/customers, and other similar expenses. Every company has a different policy regarding expense reports. Make sure to understand what is covered and what is not. Then, be very diligent about filing your expense reports, especially if there’s a cut-off date for filing such reports. I have known several search marketers who did not take the time to file expense reports and then lost hundreds (or even thousands) over time.

As a PPC marketer, you’re always looking for ways to save your company money, while growing volume. Make sure to also focus on saving money yourself. And, for more tips, check out my previous post about saving money.

Disclaimer: I’m not a financial advisor and this is not financial/investment advice. Before making any financial decisions, make sure to contact your financial advisor.
Image of Save Vs. Spend © iStockPhoto – iqoncept

Managing and Measuring Social Media With Adobe

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 9 0

Last Thursday, Adobe announced their brand new Adobe Social platform. As someone who understands the complexity in managing and measuring the impact of social media first hand, I highly recommend checking out their new platform. I also recommend checking out the Mashable writeup on Adobe’s new platform. Here are some of the key benefits of Adobe Social:

Save time and simplify social efforts
Keep up with fans through social advertising
Measure, analyze, and understand
Reach out and connect
Tailer permissions to your needs
Gain Adobe social expertise

In parallel to their big announcement, Adobe and Econsultancy partnered to create an amazing whitepaper titled Managing and Measuring Social Media. It’s the best whitepaper I have seen on the topic, a must-read for anyone in our industry. This 32 page whitepaper offers a variety of strategic and tactical advise in managing your social media programs. Topics covered in Adobe and Econsultancy’s whitepaper include:

Social media and brand awareness
Social media KPIs
Measuring and thinking about social ROI
Integrating social media into your organization
The role of technology in social media management
Survey results on how large advertisers are leveraging social media
So much more!

Social media continues to take off in the corporate world of online marketing. Whether your focus is PPC, SEO, email marketing, or any other channel within online marketing, you should become closely involved in your organization’s social media program. Some quick examples from the paid search perspective: Given the parallels between Facebook and Google AdWords, I always recommend having the PPC team manage paid campaigns on social platforms. Also, social media can be an important component of PPC landing pages. Make sure to stay up-to-date on social media trends and incorporate them into your PPC landing pages.

With the online marketing career path, it’s all about expanding your knowledge of all channels. I recommend reading Adobe’s new whitepaper to learn a plethora of great information about social media. And, big congrats Adobe on your new platform!

PPC Networking Tips

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 5 2

In the world of paid search, networking is extremely important. It really is all about the people. Whether you’re looking for a PPC job, campaign advice, a speaking opportunity, the next big thing, an opportunity to help others, or simply good times with others in our industry, it truly helps to network. Following are some PPC networking tips that have helped me tremendously.

Lunch With Marin Software

Schedule lunches with colleagues and business partners. Lunch is a great time to network and really get to know those in the PPC industry. Check out the picture to the right. Our good friends at Marin Software recently treated my team and I to lunch. Thanks, Marin!
Attend search marketing conferences. Check out my recent recap of SMX Seattle and you’ll see that the networking at these conferences is truly unparalleled. I try to attend as many SEM conferences as possible.
Consider joining SEMPO. SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization) provides a great way to network with other SEM professionals both internationally and also in your area.
Read PPC blogs and comment. I have met an amazing number of PPC professionals both through my own blog and also by reading/commenting on other blogs.
Take time to get to know your colleagues. Attend company events, such as happy hours. Go to lunch/dinner with your teammates. Spend some time chit chatting around the office (as long as it does not affect work). Getting to know your colleagues on a personal level will create lifelong friendships.
Leverage LinkedIn to grow your SEM career and build your network. I wrote a long post all about my own LinkedIn strategy. (One of my first posts here on PPC Ian nearly three years ago but tips I recommend to this day.)
Have regular calls with your search engine reps and partners. Meet your reps and partners for strategy sessions and lunches. When possible, have the meetings in-person.
Attend webinars and ask questions. Follow up with the presenters/moderators. Read eBooks and whitepapers. Email the authors. There are so many great webinars and eBooks/whitepapers in the PPC industry.
Give back via public speaking. I have done quite a bit of public speaking over the years. Some examples: Google and Stanford GSB (twice). Speaking is super helpful for your career and it’s an excellent way to network with other online marketers and businesspeople.
Find ways to help out others. I’m a firm believer that the more you give, the more you receive. Find ways to mentor others. Find ways to help out. You will build an amazingly strong network thinking of things with the “How can I help” mentality.

I hope this list helps you build your network. Do you have any PPC networking tips that have helped out in your career?

Charge Up Your Paid Search With Acquisio

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 4 0

I’m a huge fan of Acquisio. Not only do they offer one of the best Online Marketing Platforms around, but they are also a really great group of professionals. I always have fun running into Marc Poirier and his team at the search engine marketing conferences.

Over the years, I have gotten to know the Acquisio team really well and have nothing but good things to say about them. Back in December (I can’t believe it was that long ago), I had the honor of writing my first guest post on Acquisio’s blog. I shared tips on getting the most out of your new online advertising platform. I write a lot about SEM automation here and Acquisio is one of the best in that industry so I thought the topic would be perfect.

Recently, Acquisio invited me to do another guest post and it went live today! Today’s guest post features 5 Quick Ways To Recharge Your Paid Search Program. Many of the campaign managers leveraging tools such as Acquisio are in charge of huge online marketing programs. It’s always great to add some fuel to your program from time to time, so I wanted to offer some tips to challenge the status quo and charge forward. I hope you enjoy the post and recommend heading on over to Acquisio’s blog to read it. After you’re done, make sure to audition Acquisio, an amazing way to charge up your paid search program. Thanks Acquisio for the opportunity to guest post!

Ways For PPC Professionals To Save Money

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Aug 31 3

If you’re a PPC professional at a company, it’s all about investing your employer’s money. By making wise use of your marketing budget, you deliver solid returns for your company by driving sales. In the world of SEO, they say content is king. In paid search, cash is king. Invest that cash wisely and the returns will be impressive. Now, what’s a PPC professional to do outside of work, when it comes to saving money and investing wisely? Today I’m thrilled to share some money tips for paid search professionals.

Tip 1: Leverage Your Employer’s 401k

Stacks of Money

If you work at a company (as opposed to being an full-time affiliate marketer), your role typically comes with benefits (especially at larger companies). One of the best benefits around is the ability to participate in your employer’s 401k plan. 401ks are an amazing way to save for your retirement. Dollars go in on a pre-tax basis and get to compound over the years tax free. You only pay taxes when you eventually withdraw your money during retirement. Even better: Many employers offer 401k matching (aka “free money”). I also like 401ks because they offer a “pay yourself first” investment strategy. Money automatically goes in, before you “see it” on your paycheck. No matter how small you start, I think it’s a great idea to participate in your employer’s 401k plan.

Tip 2: Take Stock Options Seriously

Another one of my favorite benefits of a corporate career is the ability to participate in your employer’s stock option plan. View your employer as an investment and choose wisely. It’s possible to do incredibly well by getting in early on a growing company (just look at LinkedIn, as an example). In addition to stock options, I’m also a big fan of RSU (restricted stock unit) plans. As compared to options, RSUs represent actual shares of stock that are gifted to you by your employer. I recommend taking your stock option and RSU plan seriously. Understand if your employer or prospective employer offers one. Then, make sure to keep a close eye on your investment. Don’t sell too early nor too late, it’s all about timing with the stock market.

Tip 3: Consider Lending Club As A Savings Vehicle

I’m a huge fan of LendingClub. This year, Lending Club has become a nice component of my overall savings strategy. You may wish to check out the following posts:

Lending Club not only offers a great way to save money, but also a great way to earn returns on your free cash. My net annualized return is 11.10% – not bad at all. Just remember, a well diversified saving/investing strategy is always important. As such, I have personally scaled into my Lending Club account more and more over time!

Tip 4: Consider Building Websites

I’m a huge fan of web publishing and affiliate marketing. I make money from this blog and also my portfolio of websites, IJL Productions LLC. In addition to earning/saving money from my websites, I have learned so much about SEO, blogging, social media, email marketing, PR, and so much more. In short: Websites are not only a money-savings vehicle but also a vehicle to grow your online marketing knowledge (in channels outside of PPC). Round out your PPC expertise with the other channels and you become even more valuable as an employee! Just remember to always place your own websites as a much lower priority than your job (I spend very little time on this stuff, it’s really my hobby and way of relaxing). In the corporate world, your job is priorities 1, 2, and 3.

Tip 5: Remember To Save Money From Your Paycheck

This may sound obvious, but I want to point it out since it’s not always easy. PPC is a high powered corporate career. If you’re good at what you do and give it your 110%, the upside and career path is great. Take time to save money. When you’re making money, it’s easy to spend money. And, you should since you earned it. However, just remember to save and invest some of it for the future too. Make a conscious decision and take action!

The paid search career path is one of the best, if not the best, around. Combine a strong career path with a strong savings plan and you are destined for greatness!