Social Fresh Charlotte Takeaways for B2B

Yesterday and Today ( 9/6,7) We're Attending Social Fresh in Charlotte, NC. 

Social Fresh brings together some of the brightest names in Social Media Marketing to speak on the latest in using Social Media to marketing your business. 

Its great to hear these speakers separate all the hype about Social vs. what really works and how to use Social to market effectively (and not waste time).

There's alot to take in, and alot we'll be using to help our clients market their businesses using and getting results using Social.  But we thought we'd at least put up some info from an excellent presentation from David B. Thomas from Radian 6.

B2B Social Media:  Speaker David B. Thomas from Radian 6

How do you use Social Media to market your business if its B2B?  You need to realize both the similarities and differences between using social for B2B vs. B2C.  Here are some takeaways from this part (the main points are in bold):

• In Social Media for B2B, there is usually longer sales cycle. 6 months, a year, longer vs. a typical B2C transaction such as going into best buy and buying a tv either on the spot or coming back later that week.
• In B2B social, there are more influencers in the buying decision.  For example, with a personal buying decision such as where to eat, you or your family, friends may influence your decision.
• There is usually higher dollar valued sales, means longer consideration on the purchase, vs. most personal buying decision. 
• There is usually a higher value to relationships between the organization buying something from another business.
• An organization will likely buy more or use your service longer in B2B vs. a single person. 
• Reach:  Still important, how much reach your company has and Social will allow your potential clients to share and engage with your brand. 
• Content Still Rules:  Share useful, relevant, timely information. 
• Where B2B and B2C are similar:  You can still form emotional connections, even in B2B.  If someone in a business believes in your product or service in a business that is interested in what you have to sell, they may be pulling for your businesses over your competitors in their organization and can have definite influence. 

What does this mean?  Like traditional marketing, everybody loves a good story.  Give them that story with quality content.  But realize the above when doing social for B2B.

That's it for now.  Stay tuned for future info and blog posts using the great information we're learning about the latest in Social Media Marketing.

Google +1 and the Effect your Adwords Campaigns

With all the buzz surrounding the launch if Google Plus (+1) a great question to ask is:  How will this affect my Adwords campaigns?   This article will address a couple of things regarding this.  (Please note info from the Adwords help file on Google +1 is in italics.)

It has to be admitted with Google being the planet's largest advertiser, with most of its profits coming from advertising and revenues from it in the tens of billions of dollars.  So any change is rightly watched closely by tens of thousands of paid search advertisers and the businesses' account they manage (Including us). 

You've probably already seen the little +1 button in both paid and organic search queries.  The simple idea is that people can click on that button and when people in your Google Plus network do, you either see a number or them.  This may add weight to whether you click on the ad, in a similar way that for instance a blog post with a Facebook like button with hundreds of likes may influence a searcher to read that post vs. one without many likes. In a somewhat similar way the +1 button, it  "lets users recommend the content they like on the web, helping to improve Google search for their friends and contacts"  (Google quote). Here's a picture of what this looks like ( You can see the little +1 icon in both the ads & organic results):

Also according to Google:  "When users click the +1 button for a particular webpage, their names and profile pictures will appear as part of personal annotations in their friends and contacts’ search results. Users will see their names and pictures beneath the ads and organic links associated with the webpage."

Of course when reading the above its clear that Google +1 can influence a searcher to click on one ad over another.  Depending on how Google +1 does and how many people adopt it, it may affect how your ads do or don't do.

This is all pretty straightforward.  But the thing that needs to be understood is what Google next says on the help file page in Adwords: 

"Whenever possible, the +1 button is associated with a site’s final landing page. This means a user can recommend a webpage by clicking the +1 button on that page, or the +1 button next to a Google search ad or search result associated with that page. For example, if a user +1's an organic search result with the same final landing page as your ad, the +1 count associated with both the organic search result and the search ad will increase."

This is where it gets a little more interesting, having the Google +1 clicks associated with the final landing page.  But not just for organic or just for paid, but for both.  So for instance if someone clicks on the plus one button for your paid ad and another clicks on the Google +1 for your organic listing, both clicks count to up your +1 count.  Why is this interesting?

There's been alot of debate on whether if you rank well organically for a particular keyword, should you also bid for that keyword in Adwords to show up both in paid and organic for that search.  Some people say yes, showing in both places reinforces in the searchers mind you're the site they need to visit.  Some say its a waste of time to paid for something you already rank well for organically. 

But as for Google +1, if it does indeed take off, having your site show up in both organic and paid and having the paid ad send the user to the same page as the organic page may result in a higher Google +1 count, and maybe more authority and searches to your site.

 In addition, we know Google is tracking plus one in Google Analytics and it seems likely they may use how many +1's your pages have to indicate relevancy and maybe even ranking.  And when it comes to quality score in Google Adwords we certainly could seem them using how many +1's your ads get as an additional factor in determining quality score.

That's alot of caveats but its something to keep an eye on.  Perhaps the final thing that is possibly confusing is this:  A searcher types in a search query.  They see the search results with the plus one icon.  Are they going to click on that icon when their not sure if its the page they're looking for?  It would seem like you'd just click on the link to find the page you want and once you're there its unlikely you'll go back to the search page to click on the +1 icon.  This means to get those +1 votes, you'd need to have the Google +1 icon on each page of your site like you have the Facebook Like button.

What do you think:  Will Google +1 be as big a factor as some think in how your Adwords campaigns perform?

Adwords Call Tracking Update- Metrics Added

Last November Google announced you could do click to call with Adwords.  Yesterday they added call metrics. 

What is it?

Basically you can now assign a number to an Adwords campaign.  Whether this be your office number, call tracking number or another number.  Then when your ad shows up there's now that number listed there. See this picture:

This shows up on regular computers but also on mobile phones which is a big plus.  The searcher can call you directly from their smart phone just by clicking on that ad. 

This is certainly different as they person never has to even visit your site to contact you. 

Potential Benefits

Right now Google has it at $1.00 a click.  This may be high for some.  But we've set up Adwords for a client, a dentist.  The bidding landscape is over a buck so this may be a deal for him and any other advertiser that is used to spending more than $1.00.  Of course, this may not last as people catch on to this new feature.  Stay tuned on this.

Things to Remember:

After you set up call tracking, be sure to enable metrics.  Then go to either your campaigns or ad groups with this and click on show columns pick the call tracking metrics you want.  Now you can see calls, impressions and all other types of great info on whether people are actually clicking and calling you.

Call tracking is very important.  It tells you if the person who visited your site or saw your ad actually contacted you.  So many times people think if a form is filled out etc. the SEO or PPC is working but don't know that those 10 calls last month that resulted in alot of new business or clients came from marketing their business online.  We almost always insist this is set up for our clients.  Meauring, tracking and reporting are so crucial to online success.

Stop! Do This BEFORE You Start a Link Building Campaign

Before You Start Link Building:

Before you start a link building campaign, you need to decide what keywords you will include in your anchor text.  What is anchor text?  The anchor text is the hyperlinked text that when clicked on sends the user to your site. 

Anchor Text- The Key(words) to Great Links & Rankings

Most people wrongly just have the site linking to them decide this.  This ends up with them having their website address hyperlinked or the words click here.  While getting links is great, this is the WRONG WAY to have your link put on a site.  While a link from a trusted site will help your website you need to have the correct keywords as the anchor text.  These keywords are the keywords you would like to rank for on Google. 

 Why is this the case?  Google search technology is rapidly getting smarter and smarter.  It can more or less "read" (loosely used) the text of a link and compare the page its linked to for relevance.  So if a link says Greenville Used Cars and leads to a site that is about Greenville Used Cars Google says, "this page is about Greenville Used Cars", so when people type "Greenville Used Cars" into Google, I will show them this page as a top result, and not their competitor that also sells used cars in Greenville but has www.dougsusedcars.com as the anchor text."  See the picture below to get the idea:

Courtesy SEOMoz

Another example:  Let's say you have a painting company in Lake Norman area north of Charlotte, NC your anchor text may be:  Lake Norman Residential Painter, not www.mikespainting.com (or whatever your site is).  But how do you know which keyword phrase or phrases to choose for the anchor text of your links?  Take a little time to do some keyword research to find out the actual terms people are typing into Google to find your product or service.  You can use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. 

In Deciding Which Anchor Text to use for you links, remember these DOs & Don'ts:

• Don't make the anchor text too broad, like "residential painter", "painter", "house painter", or you will be competing with every residential painter in the country and won't show up on.

• Don't use just one phrase for your anchor text (such as "Lake Norman Residential Painting") if you are a large site or target multiple main keywords. Use a phrase for a number of links and then a phrase for another number of links (like "Lake Norman Pressure Washing" if you were a painting contractor that also does pressure washing.

• Don't use keywords that may have possible obvious multiple intents such as "Lake Norman Paint", "Paint Lake Norman", etc. because this person may not want a professional painter but rather just where to buy paints.

• DO choose anchor text that is relevant to what you sell or do. Don't use anchor text such as "Lake Norman Landscaping" when your site is about window cleaning. Your links should be from sites relevant to what you do to a site that matches the anchor text.

• DO Remember, links are a vote of confidence. You wouldn't believe the recommendation for an excellent Italian restaurant from a person who hates Italian food. But you would from a person born and raised in Rome. Google also doesn't give as much weight to links to sites that aren't relevant, but on the positive side it does to sites that are authorities and relevant to what your site is about.

• DON'T have keywords that are either too broad in scope or too narrow.  Choosing a keyword phrase such as "Lake Norman Professional House Painter Custom Painting" for your anchor text is to specific. You're looking for a keyword phrase that people actually type into Google enough times a month that they will visit your site, but not one that is way too competitive.  Again, see the picture below to get the idea:

Courtesy SEOMoz

Does this sound like alot of work even before you start the tedious but important work of actual link building?  How do you do this Keyword Research?  Are you worried you'll get it wrong and not choose the correct keywords?  To be honest, you should be.  Because if you choose the wrong keywords and your competitor chooses the right keywords for their anchor text, they will show up higher in the Google search results page in most cases.

For a fantastic, in depth article about link building, please read: 

17 Ways Search Engines Judge the Value of a Link (from SEOMoz.com)

 Shameless plug:  If this is way above your head or you have absolutely no desire to do it, hire a professional internet marketer.  Depending on your budget, you can hire him/her straight out, or for just a few hours of consulting or training to show you how to do this (yes, we do both).   But please do the above BEFORE starting your link building campaign.  Failure to do the above initial keyword research can result in frustration and much time wasted. 

What are your thoughts on link building, and using the right anchor text.  Let us know!

Google Adwords Quality Score. How Ad Ranking is Determined

Understanding Adwords Part 3 of 3:  Google Adwords Quality Score. How Ad Ranking is Determined

Last post we talked about Click Through Rate, Quality Score how they are figured and how to improve it.  But have you ever wondered exactly how each ads ranking is determined in relation to another ad?  Or to put it another way, how does Google decide to show your ad at position #4, another competitor at #1, and another at #9?  

Top Rankings in Adwords- Its Not Just Bidding Higher

As we've already talked about in other posts, its not just bidding the most.  In fact some advertisers bidding the highest are in one of the lowest positions while some bidding the lowest may be in the highest positions.  Why?  Because Google rewards advertisers with high quality ads, keywords, match types, and landing pages and penalizes the lazy.

Determining Ad Rankings

In a nutshell, the two top things that determine your rankings are:  Quality Score and Keyword Bid.

The equation goes like this:

Quality Score X Maximum Keyword Bid = Ad Rank Number.  

The higher the Ad Rank number is not the position you will have in vs. your competitors (such as being ranked 1st, 2nd, 6th, etc.)  It is simply a number in the calculation.  The higher the number, the higher you will rank vs. your competition.  Let's take a look at a few advertisers bidding on the same keyword:

Advertiser A Max CPC. 0.75, QS 8.  0.75 X 8= 6

Advertiser B Max CPC 0.65, QS 10  0.65 X 10= 6.5

Advertiser C Max CPC 1.50, QS 3    1.50 X 3= 4.5

Advertiser D Max CPC 0.95 QS 6  0.95 X 6= 5.7

Special thanks to the awesome explanation of this by Brad Geddes of bgtheory.com.  He is the man!

Learning from the Ad Ranking Equation

In the above example, what do we see?  Who will rank #1, 2, and so on?  If you answered Advertiser B for the first position, you got it!  As you can see, they have the highest Ad Rank Number.  The rest goes like this:

#1.  Advertiser B

#2.  Advertiser A

#3.  Advertiser D

#4.  Advertiser C

What do we learn from this example and how important Quality Score is?

First of all we have to acknowledge that we just don't know what our competitors are bidding on terms, so using this equation on them is impossible.  But we do learn that you can take the top position in Adwords and have the lowest maximum CPC.  Why?  Because you have the best Quality score in relation to your competitors. 

Another takeaway is from Advertiser A.  He has a good quality score of 8 for that keyword but not as good as Advertiser A.  So he can either raise his quality score or his bid.  We always recommend raising Quality Score but if you can't get to a Quality Score of 10 and it is economically feasible for you, you can raise for bid.  As you see his bid is only a dime higher than Advertiser A's, yet he beats out Advertiser D & C who are paying significantly more. 

In Conclusion:  Even if you don't know what your competition is bidding knowing that where you ad ranks is a combination of Quality Score and Max. Keyword Bid shows that getting that Quality Score higher is the most important thing you can do to lower your CPCs.  Keep writing and testing better ads, keywords, landing page copy and improving CTR and you'll be on your way. 

What have you found regarding Quality Score and Max CPC in your accounts?  Let us know!