Archive for July, 2011

July 27th, 2011

New Marketing Research Shows Women Check out Breasts More than Men

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EyeTrackShop, one of the first companies to track participants eye movements, is redeeming the reputation of men everywhere with their latest research which shows women are actually more likely to zone in on a model’s breasts than men are.

H&MWhile trying to identify differences in the way men and women view ads, EyeTrackShop came across some interesting findings. The first study showed participants the ad to the right promoting a swim suit from H&M. As you can see in the research below, women’s eyes went first to the breasts, while men’s went straight to the model’s face.

Of course, men’s eyes eventually trailed lower, but they only fixated on the model’s breasts for 1.23 seconds, as opposed to the 2.28 seconds spent on her face. Conversely, women looked first to the breasts, for 1.28 seconds, then to the model’s face for only 1.61 seconds. Interestingly, despite the difference in what grabbed the viewers attention first, both genders eye movements followed the same pattern after that point.

H&M results

Men’s fixation on model’s faces is proven again in another study which showed both genders an ad promoting running shoes which features a model wearing nothing except the shoes. This time, men and women both fixated first on the model’s face, but men spent 4.18 seconds on the model’s face to women’s 3.01 seconds. However, the men don’t get completely off the hook on this one, as they spent more time than the ladies looking at the model’s butt, and less time looking at the shoes, which were the feature of the ad. (But then again, we didn’t need eye tracking software to tell us that most men aren’t interested in women’s shoes.)

shoe results

While these findings are revealing, before we completely let the fellas off the hook, its worthy to point out that both of these ads were targeted at women. In both circumstances, women spent less time looking at the women’s face, but more time looking at the product that was being sold to them, whether it was the bikini or the shoes. So, though the men scored points this round, the jury is still out on which gender is truly looking at the ads, and who’s just checking out the babes.

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Posted by Nicole Hall, Account Manager with Mobilize Worldwide. Mobilize Worldwide develops mobile apps, mobile ad campaigns, mobile websites and just about anything else related to mobile marketing for brands interested in growing their sales and revenue using this new and emerging medium.

July 26th, 2011

How to Improve Your Conversion Rates [INFOGRAPHIC]

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A few days ago, Nick Grant sent me this infographic that’s featured on the ZippyCart site. (ZippyCart is an e-commerce software comparison site.)

The infographic outlines how to improve the conversion rate on your landing pages. It’s packed with terrific information, so I thought I’d pass it along to you here.

Enjoy.

conversion rate infographic
Brought to you by ZippyCart: Shopping Cart Reviews and Designed by Killer Infographics

July 26th, 2011

How to Align Your Sales and Marketing Teams in 3 Simple Steps

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It’s the age-old battle within any organization—Sales versus Marketing. Why is that? It seems both groups should be working hand-in-hand to create a seamless process for driving leads and revenue. But the reality is that most often, Marketing is motivated not by sales but by the number of leads (or suspects) it generates. Conversely, Sales is driven solely by how many opportunities close and how much revenue is achieved. Thus, a large (and again, age-old) gap exists between Marketing and Sales that ultimately affects the company’s leads and revenue.

Are you sure you want to align sales and marketing? The answer, of course, is yes. Better alignment means better conversion which means raises and bonuses for you.

It doesn’t have to be a complex mission to start “closing” this gap, however. There are some incremental, tactical steps you can take to readily improve the lead management process between your Marketing and Sales departments. In doing so, you can start to fill the gaping hole where leads and revenue fall out.

Three high-impact steps you can take:

1) Marketing must expand its role into lead nurturing. It’s no longer satisfactory to simply execute lead generation programs and then pass all inquiries, suspects and unqualified leads “blindly” to Sales.

  • Marketing should capture inquiries and suspects, then put them into relevant nurturing campaigns to further develop leads before sending them to Sales.
  • In this way, Marketing will no longer be just sending an abundance of contacts to Sales, the vast majority of which go ignored. (In fact, statistics show upwards of 80 percent of such leads are disregarded by Sales due to their perceived poor quality). Instead, Marketing will now be sending better qualified, “sales ready” leads that are more apt to receive Sales’ attention.
  • A word of advice: The best approach is for Marketing and Sales to jointly agree on the definition of a “sales ready” lead. If your organization can’t fully get there, you can still utilize nurturing to warm leads up and provide Sales with better intelligence on prospects.

2) Marketing should also start tracking new metrics that reveal the impact of its activities on opportunities and revenue.

  • Start tracking metrics beyond opens and clicks – evaluate opportunity “stages” and actual revenue closed from generated leads. Marketing automation can give visibility into new metrics that marketers either didn’t have previously or that were too labor-intensive to gather.
  • Marketers can show a greater link between their campaign activities and a company’s bottom line. Begin tracking opportunities and revenue back to campaigns to better maximize lead-generation budgets.

3) Sales teams should start utilizing the lead-ranking and added intelligence provided by Marketing for warmer leads.

  • With the additional nurturing and tracking being done on the front end of the funnel by Marketing, Sales will have access to leads that are not only warmer – they’ll also have more information about each lead’s interests.
  • Sales must learn to take advantage of these additional insights for more effective outbound contacts.

Most of us are fully aware that there’s a tremendous payback for aligning Sales and Marketing; however, we often don’t know where to start or we worry that it’s something that can never be achieved. Taking small, incremental steps can dramatically help both Marketing and Sales do their jobs more effectively – including generating better qualified leads and growing greater revenue.

About the Author

Lisa Cramer is president and co-founder of LeadLife Solutions, a provider of an on-demand lead management solution that helps drive revenue by bundling a state of the art marketing automation platform with highly-experienced marketing and sales specialists. In 2009 and 2010, Lisa was recognized as one of the top five “Most Influential People” in sales lead management, and in 2011 was named one of the Top 20 Women to Watch in sales lead management.  For more information on lead management or best practices call 1-800-680-6292 or email info@leadlife.com.

July 25th, 2011

Top 10 Ways to Market Your Small- or Medium-Sized Business on Twitter

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There are a lot of ways to use Twitter to market your company. But here are the top 10 as provided by Tammy Kahn Fennell, CEO and co-founder of MarketMeSuite.

 

  1. Geo-Target.  You want to connect with people who are in your area, especially if you are a brick and mortar operation. Targeting your tweets to a specific location ensures that you are only interacting with viable leads.
  2. Keyword Target. If location is not important, you’ll minimally want to narrow down the “Twittersphere” by niche. There are hundreds of thousands of tweets going out every minute, so cutting through the clutter has to be a top priority. Perform searches based on keywords, and reply to relevant tweets. If you can phrase your interaction as a question, all the better. You’ll have a much higher response rate when you are asking someone to respond.  An example is a web designer finding someone tweeting about which Studio Press WordPress theme they should chose.  “My favorite theme is Code Red – you can make lots of great modifications to it.” This sort of pro-active interaction is a perfect way to start a conversation with a potential customer. The person who tweeted the question is likely to reply, and it can be taken to the next level. “Studio Press is one of my favorite sites, if you have any trouble modifying the theme drop me a line.”
  3. Be Real.When you’re having conversation with potential customers, you want to be real. Spam is one surefire way to turn people off to you. As in the example in #2, you want to start a conversation with qualified leads, and grow the conversation organically. You don’t need 500 people a day to respond to you, having 5 or 10 qualified leads will add much more to your bottom line.

    Businesses shouldn't use social media just to be social, they should use it to connect with prospective customers. Here are 10 tips on using Twitter for that purpose.

  4. Always be there. As a small or medium-sized business owner you are expected to wear a lot of hats, so when your social media hat comes off for a little while, you don’t want to leave your followers with nothing, so schedule up some helpful tweets for your followers to read while you’re busy doing other things.
  5. Give others credit.  One big mistake often seen on Twitter is tweeting out loads of unattributed feeds.  If you know of a blog you think your followers will be interested in, mark it as  RT @the blog owner’s Twitter account. This will help your followers know what is your personal content, and also shows up on the blog feed owner’s account as an “@ mention” which increases their chance of returning the favor to you, increasing your own traffic.
  6. Track your Progress.  Tools like Klout or PeerIndex are great ways to track your influence and make sure that you are moving in the right direction.
  7. CRM is key.  Twitter is a great way to handle many customer requests, especially if you can do it as close to real time as possible. Set up searches for keywords related to your brand, and put in the time daily to handle requests and escalate them through appropriate channels when necessary. A happy customer is a repeat customer.
  8. Use lists. You can create Twitter lists or, if you’re using a dashboard, search panes or search groups, for different groups of people. For SMEs this is a great way to curate the massive amounts of information that will come through your home timeline on a regular basis.
  9. Don’t be afraid to unfollow. You don’t have time to read about 10% off on Viagra. Generally, if someone isn’t following you back, there’s not a whole lot of point of following them (the exceptions are larger companies or celebrities you may follow). Remember, if they aren’t following you they aren’t seeing anything you say, so the relationship is very one-sided.
  10. Monitor your competitors. Set up searches for your competitors. If you don’t mind publicly following them you can add them to a Twitter list, but you may prefer to just set up searches privately. You need to know what your closest competitors are doing at all times, and Twitter is so real-time that you can be in the know almost as quickly as they launch something!

This is a guest post by Tammy Kahn Fennell, CEO and co-founder of MarketMeSuite. MarketMeSuite now has thousands of users and a fast-growing global customer base of small businesses and consultants.

July 22nd, 2011

How Coca-Cola Uses the PUSH! + Play App to Keep Consumers Coming Back

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The secret to creating a good smart phone app is to develop one that has three key qualities:

  1. It gets consumers to use the app over and over,
  2. It provides consumers information about the brand, and
  3. It does so in a fun, non-salesy way.

The new PUSH! + Play app from The Coca-Cola Company accomplishes all of those things quite brilliantly. (Disclaimer: The Coca-Cola Company has hired me as a keynote speaker in the past.)

Instead of trying to do something that pushes the commercial side of Coca-Cola on users, they’ve created an app that creates engagement in a light-hearted, enjoyable fashion.

If you’re interested in seeing what makes the app so successful, watch the 60 Second video below which highlights the apps best features.

Enjoy!

July 21st, 2011

How to Use Twitter: 5 Ways to Improve Your Results

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With all the hullabaloo surrounding the launch of Google+ as well as the constant chatter of Google+ vs. Facebook, let’s not forget about the impact that Twitter has on business.

Here are five ways to improve your Twitter experience and make the most of your time and your content on this important microblogging site.

First, make sure you have created a Twitter handle that accurately reflects your brand whether it’s a product, service, or an individual so that it’s easy to find or easily deduced by customers and prospective customers – here are some good examples: @WaltDisneyWorld, @RitzCarlton, @Macys, @SouthwestAir, @google, @ThisIsSethsBlog, @BillGates.

Second, in some (but not all) cases, you’ll want to use your logo as your Twitter avatar. For example, Delta Air Lines has several different Twitter accounts, all of which use a version of their logo. Here are some other good examples: @komenforthecure, @SaginawHabitat, @htmagazine, @pcworld, @SeattleMonorail.

Third, make sure you follow influencers in your niche industry (for example, these could be competitors, up-and-comers, or even individuals) as well as others that will make your Twitter feed stand apart. As you read others’ Tweets, you’ll gain more insight into how to make your Twitter stream interesting and important to your followers.

Fourth, encourage conversations. Don’t just provide statements, quotations, or links, but engage with your followers. Get to know them, and give them the opportunity to get to know you. Share experiences and ask for opinions. These efforts may take more time, but they will result in a more rewarding Twitter experience.

If you want to really improve your results on Twitter, take advantage of new tools like Twylah, which can improve your Twitter effectiveness. Here are some of the cool things about it:

  • Your Tweets are presented in a more user-friendly manner – and you can pin your preferred top categories
  • Your Tweets have a longer lifespan than when just posted to the Twitter stream because they live on through SEO
  • You own your traffic and content and can monetize that traffic – while this is still in the beta phase, see Bon Jovi’s page for a sneak peak

Here are some exciting Twylah pages you might want to check out:

Bon Jovi: http://tweets.bonjovi.com

UC-Berkeley: http://www.twylah.com/cal

Jeff Bullas: http://tweets.jeffbullas.com

Whole Foods Market: http://www.twylah.com/wholerecipes

KISSmetrics: http://tweets.kissmetrics.com

Baskin-Robbins: http://www.twylah.com/BaskinRobbins

And here’s mine, Debbie Laskey, MBA: http://www.twylah.com/DebbieLaskeyMBA

If you would like to sign up for Twylah, visit the site at http://www.twylah.com and click on “request invite.” You will hear back from Twylah shortly. When you do, please respond to the welcome email with any questions or comments.

Still want more Twitter tips? Then watch “How to Use Facebook and Twitter as Marketing Tools” below.

Debbie Laskey has 15 years of marketing experience and an MBA Degree. Currently, she is a brand marketing and social media consultant to start-ups and non-profits in California. Debbie has been recognized as a “Woman Making a Difference” by the Los Angeles Business Journal and a “Member of the Month” by the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce. She has served as a mentor for the Strategic Technology Program sponsored by the California TeleMedicine & eHealth Center as well as on the boards of numerous non-profits. Debbie blogs regularly about marketing, leadership, and social media at http://debbielaskey.blogspot.com.

July 20th, 2011

Free Social Media and Mobile Media Online Training: Watch Now

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A few weeks ago, I was flattered to be asked by HubSpot to participate in their Inbound Marketing University. The University is a service provided by HubSpot to provide free training to their followers.

The title of my 60-minute training course is “Using Social Media and Mobile Media to Connect with Customers” and it outlines some of the key things marketers need to know about the following:

 

  1. How Customers Make Buying Decisions
  2. How to Use Social Media to Connect with Customers
  3. How to Use Mobile Media to Grow Your Business

If you’re interested in learning more about these topics, feel free to click the video below. I tried to include relevant information and also tried to keep the content fresh and fun to watch.

Enjoy!

July 19th, 2011

How Zappos Doubled Sales Each Year for 5 Years in a Row [INFOGRAPHIC]

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July 18th, 2011

Top 5 Ways To Measure Your Online Campaign

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Unlike marketers before us, there are now a multitude of tools at our disposal to help us determine the effectiveness of our campaigns. Using multiple metrics can give you a more holistic view of your campaigns and help you understand the big picture, but which metrics are really the important ones?  Here are the top 5 ways to measure your online campaign:

Cost Per Click: (Total Cost of Clicks/Number of Clicks) This is probably the most popular way to go, as much paid media is actually sold this way. This metric helps you see how much you are paying for customers to take the desired action, as opposed to just paying for impressions.

Marketing Metrics

Today, more than ever, marketing is about tracking data and using that data to calculate your marketing ROI.

Cost Per Sale: (Total Budget/Number of Sales Made) This number is likely going to be lower than your CPC but is an important number to look at as it takes actual sales, as opposed to just clicks, into consideration. While this metric is good to show you how much each sale is costing you, it can be misleading because it is only taking the number of sales into consideration, as opposed to the amount of the sale. You may be willing to up your cost per sale if it helps you sell bigger ticket items.

Cost Per Lead: (Total Budget/Number of Leads) This model is somewhere between the cost per click and cost per sale models, where you calculate how much money it takes to get contact information for prospective clients that your sales team or call center can then use to follow up and make the sale. What you qualify as a lead can change from business to business. Some people may count a simple phone number as a lead, where others will require multiple touchpoints for the consumer before it’s considered a solid lead.

Average Order Value: (Total Revenue/Number of Sales) This model may help you determine which ads are most profitable for you, as it shows you how much money is actually generated on average when a consumer converts. This information is valuable because if your average order value is higher in one channel, you may be willing to spend more there even if your cost per sale is also high.

Return on Ad Spend: (Total Revenue Generated by the campaign- Campaign Spend/Campaign Spend) This the most comprehensive way at looking at the cost efficiency of your campaign. By looking at your Return on Ad Spend, you can compare all of your marketing efforts to see which channel is performing best dollar for dollar.

If you like what you read today, you can have these blog posts delivered to your in box each morning by clicking marketing blog. Or, you can sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter by clicking marketing newsletter.

Posted by Nicole Hall, Account Manager with Mobilize Worldwide. Mobilize Worldwide develops mobile apps, mobile ad campaigns, mobile websites and just about anything else related to mobile marketing for brands interested in growing their sales and revenue using this new and emerging medium.

July 14th, 2011

Top 10 Marketing Tips to Use LinkedIn to Your Advantage

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LinkedIn is a great social networking tool for businesses, recruiters, marketers and professionals wishing to connect and establish relationships. Many users sign up to be a part of the professional community but are unclear as to how to establish connections and use this tool to their advantage.

AccountingDegree.com filled us in on some top tips to amp up your LinkedIn profile. I’ve broken down the top 10 that will help you get connected, establish meaningful relationships and use this tool to your full advantage.

1. Brand yourself: You don’t want to get lost in the mix, so it’s important to make your presence known. How? For starters, always make sure you have an updated professional photo to help create a personal connection with others. Personalize your URL link, it’s a great way to make yourself more marketable versus keeping the random URL given to you by LinkedIn. Include a summary so those connecting with you can learn more about you and your experiences. Think of this as your mini commercial selling yourself to businesses and marketers.

2. Increase your Visibility: LinkedIn ranks high in terms of page ranks in Google. Best way to get your profile more visibility is to make your information public by selecting “Full View” in settings. This increases your chances of coming up in search engines and gives you a greater possibility to connect with more professionals and companies.

3.  Promote yourself: LinkedIn allows you to publicize your profile so use this to your advantage. You can also create a LinkedIn signature to include when you comment on blogs or other social platforms. It’s a great way to get your profile out there across multiple social mediums.

4. Groups: Start a group or get involved in a group, either way this is an area you want to be involved in. When you start a group you become the “connector” and center of the conversation. It’s a great way to let people know your strengths and create a community of people with similar interests that can ultimately help you expand your personal database.

5. Applications: There are lots of great LinkedIn applications out there, however for all you bloggers, WordPress blog RSS is the cream of the crop. This app gives you the ability to syndicate your blog through your profile so those connected with you can view your blog and be updated with new posts and information.

6. Events: Connect with your fellow LinkedInners beyond the social networking page. From conferences to happy hours there is always something going on in the business world and you should be a part of it. Check out events in your area and view the RSVP list so you know who will be in attendance. Message your connections and let them know you will be there too.

7. Be a Resource: Listen to your connections questions and show that you can be of service to them. Show them what can you and your company bring to the table. Introduce your connections with others and become the “connector” and a person of resource. It’s a great way to grow your influence on LinkedIn.

8. Use Keywords: It’s the same concept when you are publishing blogs or websites, you want your link to appear as an answer to whatever keyword was entered into the search engine. Pick some keywords that you want to be associated with when searched. Use these words in your public profile to increase awareness about your brand or company and improve your search ranking.

9. Repurpose Content: So, what does this mean? Post content and mentions about you or your company on LinkedIn to spread the word and brag a little big about your accomplishments. Company Buzz is a great tool that sifts through Twitter to find whose talking about your company and what’s being said. Highlight these mentions on your profile and add to the buzz.

10. Customer Company Profile: This customizable page option helps company’s enhance their recruiting tactics and provide a targeted experience for potential connections. Through this tool a company can provide prospective employees with updated career information as well as participate in recruiting efforts.

Posted by Rebecca Wilson, Marketing Analyst for the 60 Second Marketer.

July 13th, 2011

What You Need to Know About Google+

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We have made our Kindergarten teachers proud. After the countless scuffles over playground toys and ear-shattering tantrums debating whose turn it is, it seems that this generation has embraced their teachings like no generation before us. We have truly mastered the art of sharing.

We can’t go five seconds without checking in on Facebook, posting photos to Instagram, or Tweeting our latest thought, and now, it appears we will be adding Google+ to the growing list of sites we compulsively check.

A Quick Look At Google+

Do you think Google+ will be the success that Google is hoping for?

After several underwhelming forays into the social realm, many analysts are speculating that this time, Google has gotten it right. Despite the fact that invites to the site have been limited, some 3rd party sources are estimating that the new network has already reached 10 million users and might hit 20 million by the weekend.

So what makes Google+ so intriguing? Despite many conflicting theories on this matter, the main draw for Google+ appears to be the fact that they have new, cool features that attempt to address some of the shortcomings of Facebook.

First, the Circle feature allows you to instantly create groups amongst your friends or centered around common interests called “Sparks.” You can then share specific content with only the people in that particular circle. Annoyed that your mom, grandmother, professor and boss all just friended you on Facebook? On Google+, you can put them all in a specific circle and share updates about studying, attending church, or cooking while saving the pics from your weekend trip to Vegas for another circle.

Another new and different feature is the “hangout” feature for when you want to interact with your friends live. Though Facebook recently announced they are partnering with Skype to come out with a video chat feature, Google+ beat them to the punch with “hangouts.” Just let your friends know that you’re free for a “hangout” and you can join as many friends in a video chat as your heart desires.

In addition to these features, some people on Google+, including Digg founder Kevin Rose and writer MG Seigler, reported that the real-time comments section and +1 feature (which has been available on search pages and other web properties for several months now) are good for driving more interaction with their followers.

However, there are some downsides. Many Google+ people complained that their feeds could easily get spammed with content and comments from other followers, making it difficult to find information. Additionally, users are surprised to see a few key components missing, such as a search functionality, iPhone access, and perhaps most importantly, profiles for businesses.

Google has declared that they will be coming out with business profiles soon, complete with deep analytics and the ability to integrate with AdWords, but as of now they are asking brands to refrain from creating profiles on the network. This, in combination with the fact that there is currently no paid advertising space, has some people wondering how Google+ will affect marketers.

The impact on marketers is hard to determine and much is yet to be seen in the way that Google+ will grow, but for now it’s simply a new tool in our marketing tool belt. According to Raphael Rivilla from BKV, “Google+ is very cool, so some people will migrate, but there will be others that won’t. This is just yet another place to interact with our targets.”

Posted by Nicole Hall, Account Manager with Mobilize Worldwide. Mobilize Worldwide develops mobile apps, mobile ad campaigns, mobile websites and just about anything else related to mobile marketing for brands interested in growing their sales and revenue using this new and emerging medium.

July 12th, 2011

Twitter Use by Age [Infographic]

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The commonly-held belief about Twitter (and other social media platforms) is that it’s just for young people. But as you can see in the Infographic below, Twitter usage is spread out among a wide variety of the population.

Of particular note is the fact that the second highest usage is among the 35- to 44-year old crowd and the third highest usage is among the 45 to 54-year old crowd. That means that a full 31% of Twitter users are between the ages of 35 and 54.

The key point: Twitter isn’t just for teens and young adults.

Twitter Use by Age

Posted by Jamie Turner, co-author of How to Make Money with Social Media and Founder of the 60 Second Marketer.

July 11th, 2011

The Five Most Common Paid Search Mistakes

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Whether or not your brand or product already has a presence online, you are missing out if you are not using paid search as a marketing channel. Recent research has shown that 40% of all people on the internet querying a search engine will click on a paid search link first, and that number is increasing.

Paid search allows for unprecedented targeting and tracking, letting you control expenditures down to minute details. You can run a paid search campaign with $20 or $200,000, and the $20 campaign is not necessarily at a disadvantage. It can earn the same ROI.

Ready to jump in? Just look before you leap.

Here are five of the most common paid search mistakes that you want to avoid when starting your campaign.

#1 Ego Bidding – This mistake usually results from emotional attachment to a certain keyword or campaign on the part of the bidder. For example, the bidder decides that his/her phrase must rank number one on a particular engine. In most cases, the bidder simply wants the satisfaction of running a search and seeing his/her keyword in a top position. Sometimes, they want to rank a phrase using internal language, which is irrelevant to most searchers. This mistake can easily result in inefficient spending of the budget, and can often deplete your daily budget before dinner…or even lunch.

#2 Too many keywords per ad – This mistake is common to people fairly new to paid search; it’s easy to fall into but easy to get out of as well. Adding too many keywords to one ad group often leaves you with irrelevant keywords generating impressions for the ad.  First, these non-targeted impressions will decrease your quality score because your click-through rate will likely decrease. Second, these irrelevant keywords will cost you extra money.

#3 Focusing on budget instead of ROI – Paid search campaigns are not like other marketing mediums, so viewing them as another line item in your budget is a mistake.  The trackability and accountability that paid search offers allow it to run more efficiently than other types of marketing. Focusing on what you are spending instead of what you are getting in return leads to inefficient bidding and a campaign that does not maximize the benefits that paid search offers. Instead, manage paid search on a day-to-day basis, adjusting your bids and keywords in order to capitalize on the return on your investment.

#4 Not learning from your competitors’ strategy – Some paid search programs and software offer the ability to track what your competitors are doing online; what keywords, where they bid, when they bid, etc. Especially if you are going up against larger, more established brands with larger paid search budgets, you must learn from their strategies so that you are not two steps behind. With this approach, you should be able to circumvent a lot of the guesswork and gain on your competitors with efficient bidding, even on a small budget.

#5 Forgetting to think negatively – A common mistake in the campaign planning process is not thoroughly researching negative keywords. Positive keywords will drive traffic to your site, but negative keywords will filter out the traffic that you don’t want. For example, if you are selling Nike sneakers, and you are bidding on the general phrase “sneakers,” you would want to negative keyword “Reebok” or any other brands competing with Nike. This negative keyword will ensure that anyone searching “Reebok sneakers” is not directed to your ad simply because they typed in sneakers.

Have we missed any paid search mistakes you’d like to add to the list? If so, let us know in the comments section below.


The 60 Second Marketer is a free online magazine brought to you by BKV Interactive and Direct Response. We try to provide quick updates on the newest tools, tips and techniques in marketing. We also try to accomplish that with a dose of humor or levity. As it turns out, we're pretty good at providing tools, tips and techniques, but we're not actually all that funny. Which would explain why people don't call us "funny" as much as they call us "laughable." Bummer. Our offices, for those of you who are interested, are located in Atlanta (404-233-0332) and Kansas City (913-648-8333). We also have offices on Bora Bora, but they don't have the phones installed yet.

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