martin macdonald

1

Combining Paid Search& Organic Principles

2Questions? tweet @searchmartin

Introductions

Martin MacDonald

Inbound Marketing Director, Expedia E.A.N.

Specialist in: Technical SEO, PPC, Affiliate Marketing, WebDev

Get in Touch: Twitter: @searchmartinLinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/mogmartin/


WTF is Inbound Marketing Anyway?

Lets ask Google:



Lets ask Google:



Lets ask the Industry:




37 Comments48 Tweets43 FB/G+/Linkedin




Still no closer to a definition!

37 Comments48 Tweets43 FB/G+/Linkedin


Inbound Marketing Defined

In-bound Mar-ket-ing -noun

“Marketing strategy that relies on being in the discovery phase of the acquisition cycle.”


Customer Acquisition – circa 1995



Interruption Marketing



Reach maximum possible audience

Interrupt them with information

about youHope



Interest

Research

AwarenessConversion

Retention

With Inbound Marketing you can appear at every stage of the consumer buying cycle often at no

media cost


A Real WorldCase Study



Interest

Q3 2012 I’ve decided that my old Nikon D40 just isn't cutting it.



Interest



Interest

#FAIL



Interest

80% of Search Clicks STILL go to organic!

“Organic listings are trusted to be more relevant than paid

search.”



Research

Researching products has become an integral part of the purchase cycle in the

internet age



Research



Research

Conversion

I know what I'm looking for.

All I need to do is find the best place to buy what I'm looking for.

Amazon show up in #1 in PPC for the product I want.

Amazon show up in #2 in SEO with the same page.



Research

Conversion

I know what I'm looking for.

All I need to do is find the best place to buy what I'm looking for.

Amazon show up in #1 in PPC for the product I want.

Amazon show up in #2 in SEO with the same page.

I Trust Amazon…



Research

Conversion


(Calumet Photo here in NYC)


I bought the camera


Lets go back to the modern purchase cycle

Interest

Research

AwarenessConversion

Retention

Using inbound marketing we can influence the purchase path much earlier

We build awareness for when the consumer is ready to convert

We get the chance to retain the customer after initial purchase!


Lets look at the value of traffic sources

We know most search engine clicks happen in the organic listings.

There are more informational searches than transactional though..



Lets look at the value of traffic sources

Despite higher traffic numbers paid search still drives unmatched conversion metrics, and simply can not be ignored.

42-48% of conversions happen against a paid click!Stats based on 80% of sites closest to median

purchasing behavior split between organic and paid, travel industry test group Q3 2012.


Hang on a minute….


Lets look at the modern buying process again

Interest

Research

AwarenessConversion

Retention

SEOBlogging Research

Whitepapers

News

PR

Social Media

Reviews

Comparison

AdwordsPay per Click

Affiliate Marketing

eMail

CRM

Community Engagement



Interest

Research

AwarenessConversion

Retention

SEOBlogging Research

Whitepapers

News

PR

Social Media

Reviews

Comparison

AdwordsPay per Click

Affiliate Marketing

eMail

CRM

Community Engagement



Interest

Research

AwarenessConversion

Retention

Stuff you should

pay for..

..stuff you really

shouldn’t!


Economies of Scale and Traffic Volumes

SEO & SMM to build awareness and attract consumer attention

PPC to ensure you don’t lose the

customer

Retention

Highest Traffic

Highest Conversion Rate


Know what question you are answering

I need help making a purchase decision:

• Do I have a need?• Does a product fulfill my need or desire?• What factors should I consider in making my purchase?• Which product matches my requirements best?

These are the questions you should be answering by being in the right place at the right time – organically.


Know what question you are answering

I want to find the best place to make my purchase

• Where is the product available?• How much does it cost?• When can I have it delivered?

These are the questions you should be answering with paid search clicks, a common mistake is providing all the answers and losing the conversion when the consumer is in the right mindset.


How big is inbound?

But what about on other platforms?



How big is inbound?


How big is inbound?

(but then, has anyone ever bought anything because of

twitter?)


There’s gold in them hills


My Top 5 Tips on Combining Marketing


Information Providers

Every Niche has existing information providers:

These may be popular blogs, forums, review sites, basically – anywhere where your audience is already gathering.

Use tools like Searchmetrics, SEMrush or SpyFu to find their most important groups of keywords, this will guide your content production towards the most valuable content to attract visitors in the greatest volume.

Its unlikely that your direct ecommerce competition is already doing this…


Information Providers

Every Niche has existing information providers:

These may be popular blogs, forums, review sites, basically – anywhere where your audience is already gathering.

Use tools like Searchmetrics to find their most important groups of keywords, this will guide your content production towards the most valuable content to attract visitors in the greatest volume.

Its unlikely that your direct ecommerce competition is already doing this…


Turbocharge Data Gathering

Leverage the speed & flexibility of PPC:

Once you have a clearer picture of what you think you should be ranking for run broad matched paid search campaigns for a few days, with medium to high bid prices, and uncapped budgets ($10,000s per day).

This will give you a better picture of the marketplace than any amount of consumer research ever could.


Use Adwords Segmentation for SEO

Use Adwords Audiences on Organic Traffic:

It can be a great way of targeting the right message to the right consumers, and keeping track of how your SEO has influenced your paid search campaigns.

You can further filter the right advertising message to the right audience, maximizing your potential returns.


Hack Affiliate Software for Funnel Attribution

Hack class leading attribution tracking:

Getting your ROI from content production is notoriously tough – but there is a relatively easy and cost effective way.

Experiment with your own in house affiliate tracking solution, Post Affiliate Pro is a great example of software that handles multi touch attribution in a straight forward environment, just setup Google Organic, Adwords, and referral sources as different “affiliates” with unique contribution values.


Turn visitors into an army of marketers

Give a sense of achievement

LinkedIn gave “status” to power users and invited them to tweet about it. Its also an awesome CRM tool!


Use your existing assets wisely

You’ve built up Social Media Assets – USE them!

For years everyone has thought about follower count or total likes – lets start using them!

Be human, ask your influential followers to give their feedback on your content, you’ll get great information and social shares that count.


Whats the Downside?


Whats the Downside?

No, Really?


Keep the Pandas happy!


THANK YOU

Get in Touch!

Twitter: @searchmartin

LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/mogmartin/

martin macdonald

Documents

existing information

modern buying

information

audience isalready

search clicks

amazon show

attract visitors

nikon d40