NetElixir Blog

2nd Annual PPC Stress Study Results

We released the 2nd Annual PPC Stress survey results today. We had 140 retailers participate in this year's survey. They ranged from giant e-tailers like WalMart to one person shops.

Despite all concerns about rising click costs and click fraud, e-tailers are investing more and more on paid search advertising. Also, the sophistication level keeps increasing. We believe that use of long tail keywords is one "probable indicator" of level of sophistication (attempts to monetize the long tail).

I am amazed - still - at the number of people a firm dedicates to its PPC campaigns and the time spent in management. Understandably more people are willing to outsource.

Number of specialized agencies are still very few. PPC Management still is done by boutique firms who offer other services as well.

My forecast remains optimistic - I don't see any signs of a PPC slowdown till 2011/2012.

You can read the press release here : http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005557

You can download a free copy of the executive summary here - http://netelixir.com/stressreliever.html?ne_ppc_id=31&ne_key_id=-5

Thanks,

Udayan Bose

Bracing Up for a profitable holiday season

My friend and e-tail expert, Lauren Freedman wrote a nice article today for Practical eCommerce - Marketers should be preparing for the holidays now, http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/507/Merchants-Should-Be-Preparing-For-The-Holidays-Now/

As is the case with any article she writes the article is extremely practical and drives the point home - 2007 holiday season would be the biggest ever and a prudent marketer needs to start thinking about it right away to gain maximum mileage.

After having managed more than 50 e-tailer SEM accounts and having interacted extensively with merchants of all size, I have been able to distill some "to do's" for an e-tailer.The points are self explanatory and might seem almost obvious. Nevertheless, merchants tend to ignore these repeatedly.

1. Begin with a "measurable business goal"

2. Break it down to sub-objectives - "be very clear about what you want to achieve"

3. Write down a plan for achieving these objectives - (suppose budget was not a constraint,what would the plans look like)

4. Establish measurable action points for each of the  plan items

5. Allocate a budget to each point - allocate resources for management

6. Draw up a time-chart for the entire plan

7. Draw up a contingency plan for each action point (worst case scenario planning is advised)

8. Find the right partners to work with by August and get them involved in your plans - share your goals - get their ideas

9. Drive hard for SUCCESS.

- Udayan Bose

Wall Street Journal and misleading Google advertising

I did a search for "wall street journal" on Google to land here -

Wall Street Journal
www.wallstreetjournal.com      Wall Street Journal Free Delivery & 8 Weeks Free

I clicked on the link to land here -
https://www.wallstreetjournal.com/Gryphon/jsp/retentionController.jsp?page=11223&S=63JSBK&psid=search

I filled in the registration information and clicked submit, and hey.. what do i get -

the offer is no longer valid!!!

This is atrocious. The landing page should have been different (and accurate), or I should at least have been informed of this before I added my credit card information.

This is what happens when companies run PPC campaigns with the help of agencies that "do not care" or are "simply negligent".

Whatever, it is - this experience was a big "dissonance creator" for a WSJ fan like me.

Marketing on the web is NOT EASY. There are multiple touch points that you as a marketer need to have control on. Just consider this - each minute (probably each second for a big name like WSJ) there are thousands of visitor interactions - and when someone is filling up the registration form and submitting his credit card info - its beyond just interaction. One goof up, and it creates a snow balling effect beyond what you might even dream of as a marketer.

These days - with internet adoption and usage being at an all time high - each negative experience with any single person dilutes the brand image (in however miniscule a proportion). This does not show up immediately as it is too small to impact a big brand , but such negative experiences add up to a big impactful force.
Online advertising agencies have as important a role to play as the marketers. They are getting paid to manage much more than just the marketer's campaign. They are the in-charge of managing the marketer's IMAGE - REPUTATION - BRAND.

I meet agencies all the time - who rave and rant about their new account wins, how they are coming up with new ideas to manage new business they are flooded with, how are cashing in on the internet gold rush...blah, blah, blah... not many-a-time have I heard them speaking about - "how they have worked with their EXISTING CUSTOMERS and delighted them with their passion - ownership and level of involvement.

Internet advertising is "DIFFICULT" - Period. When you advertise on the web, it's like getting into a "global brain- technology - process - war" .

You don't win wars if you rush in to fight with antiquated weapons - you just "get killed".

- Udayan Bose

Internet Retailer Show 2007

Just got back after a super Internet Retailer show in San Jose. Quick observations -
1. Steve Rogers - the organizer - is undoubtedly the best I have seen - ever smiling, courteous, affable, super organizer. He has got the attendee list to over 3000, which is extremely creditable
2. Online Retail is booming - this show was an eye-opener in every way - huge crowd - interesting sessions - average participant knowledge level higher than most other shows
3. There was not much new that any exhibiting vendor had to offer - that is disappointing - I guess, companies are moving towards "efficiency boosts" in their solutions rather than selling creative stuff - clear sign of an evolving industry
4. Retailers of all size need help on PPC management - our theme "NetElixir eliminates PPC stress" resonated with the attendees - as a result we got unprecedented number of e-tailers to visit our booth
5. Google dictates "everything" in the internet space
6. MSN would never EVER POSE ANY THREAT for Google (or Yahoo) - they have no clue what to do
7. It's sickening to see exhibitors waste money on "silly stunts and freebies" - its just a criminal waste of money - I am a strong believer of the fact that unless freebie is well aligned with the booth theme - its  a waste of money. Hats of to Gwyn for a  well thought out  freebie + booth plan

- Udayan Bose

ACCM Boston and the Plight of Marketers

I attended the ACCM Show at Boston last week. We had a booth there.

It was a well organized show that attracted (my estimate) around 3000-4000 attendees.

My "post-show thoughts"-

1. I bet 90% of marketers are just too overwhelmed or too confused by the number of options that are available today to promote their business

2. Our booth was in the Analytics Pavilion of the Exhibition area. The area drew a fair amount of traffic. I could literally sense an added degree of urgency in the marketers towards web advertising. An attendee who had attended all previous versions mentioned that she could "literally sense" a shift towards the web from the more traditional channels

3. (Pardon my arrogance but..) There was nothing really new and novel - however there were companies that had a more efficient approach to solving a pertinent customer problem. This is something to be expected as the industry evolves. We are entering a phase (or I would say - have entered) where process - systems - efficiency - productivity - would be important in the "services" arena- more important than a stupendous idea/product that does not touch the "masses".

- Udayan Bose

SES, Munich - March 2007

This post comes exactly two months after SES, Munich 07 - where I had my first real taste of the SEM business in Germany.
My comments -
1. Given the penetration levels of the internet, I had expected greater sophistication from the SEM Agencies. I would estimate that the agencies are still - on an average - a year to a year and half behind US
2. Some very unique mathematical work is in progress in some top universities on multi-lingual search especially on areas like personalization, behavioral targeting, etc
3. I was a speaker in a panel of international experts that discussed the future of search. We juggled around mostly standard topics like potential Google beaters, usability, mobile search, etc. I added an outside US and UK dimension to the discussion. Indeed, search would have arrived when there is a certain degree of searching homogeneity and usage across the globe. Thankfully, the time lag between the most advanced internet nation (Korea? USA? Japan?) and the others is not too large- 4 years?.
4. For the agencies: In Germany "Performance Marketing Agencies" are in vogue - there are very few pure play PPC management firms (actually, I don't know if there are any)

5. German online advertising market is poised to "explode" - and the smart early movers would win significant amount of business here with adequate focus

-Udayan Bose

Is it going to be Good Bye Bid Management

Since we started operating 3 years back we have been harping how "in-appropriate" it is to call PPC campaign management - "bid management". Bidding was and unfortunately still is considered by  many as the key  PPC campaign success determinant.  This was primarily because of the way all PPC engines with the exception of Google Adwords worked. You could see what your competitors were bidding for a keyword and change your bids accordingly. This resulted in atrocious activities like bid war (defies economic logic from the view point of both search engines as well as advertisers). Tools like GoToast were built on "defensive bases" to maximize returns in volatile bidding scenarios. Till 2004 (that's when Adwords beat Overture) PPC management was equivalent to bid management.

Thankfully, much sanity has been established - first with Google adwords and now with Yahoo!SM following the way "away from bid management".  Things that rightfully should have been emphasized initially like campaign strategy - a process centric account management approach - superior quality messaging - performance measurement and optimization -- are all been given their due credit. Bid management is now just  a "small part" of the bigger plan.

This is good for search users, advertisers, search engines and agencies. Search users can now hope to be subjected to "less trashy ads", advertisers can now focus on differentiating messages, performance analyses and intelligent promos rather than just spending the entire day mindlessly engaging in bid war, Yahoo now earns more money out of what can be categorized as a "blind auction" (championed by Google). Agencies like NetElixir that have been championing the account management concept with ample emphasis on strategy coupled with 24x7 management can now be happy that they would not have to deal with those crazy bidders working with rule based tools.

PPC Management is entering phase-2 of evolution. This is surely the first serious alarm for champions of bid management tools

-Udayan Bose

Featured in Internet Retailer

NetElixir received some press coverage today -

http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=20323

Our PPC management solution works particularly well for online retail sector where "sales" can be measured. Based on a combination of multiple algorithms and human specialization, we are able to drive "seemingly unbeatable" results for our clients - consistently.

- Udayan Bose

Google arrives in AA

NetElixir welcomes Google in Ann Arbor -

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060918/BUSINESS05/609180343/1002/BUSINESS

- Udayan Bose

The most efficient way of managing a PPC Campaign

We have had some elaborate and passionate discussions on merits of selling our integrated PPC management platform to advertisers and agencies as a stand-alone system. The platform is a user friendly app from where an advertiser can set up, monitor, manage and optimize her PPC campaigns for multiple accounts (and in some time) multiple search engines. It simplifies the entire process of PPC advertising management substantially..

My main contention "against" selling it as a stand alone software has been - "Optimal PPC management is a clever combination of pure manual work (30%) plus solid technology (70%)". While technology takes care of areas like - speed of operation, scalability, bidding, keyword optimization, reports, specialized manual work is essential requirement for creative development, landing page creation and testing, performance analysis and extrapolation. Without the 30% - there is absolutely NO WAY that a PPC campaign can be optimized. PERIOD.

The best approach has to be a SOLUTIONS approach. The solution should SOLVE the advertiser's problem. Just selling a bidding tool or providing a service without the support of strong technology - is NOT GOING TO SOLVE advertiser's problem.

We know that we would be restricted from reaching out to 100's of users (a typical web app model).As a business that commits itself 100% to customer success, I am quite okay with serving less customers - as long as we are helping them "win" the PPC advertising battle.

- Udayan Bose