1. What is your measure of success?

Before starting any kind of campaign, it’s important to understand what your goal is – and keep that goal in mind as you set up your marketing effort. So, if you want people to visit your site, register for an account, buy your products or walk into your store, decide that first.

• If your customers will buy, register or download something from your site, set plan to set up Google conversion tracking on your site. I’ll explain how in a follow up article.

In addition to what action you want people to take, consider who you want to reach. “Who” might be based on demographics, region, interest…

• Google has some tools for geographic targeting. If you run a regional or local business, you’ll want to leverage these features.

2. What types of words do your targets use now to describe what you do?

Search marketing is PULL not PUSH. This means that you are going to lure people to your site by giving them something that they are interested in already. So your first challenge is understanding what words people already use to describe what it is that you offer. For instance, you might call your blue pencils “Azure Writing Device with Edit Function,” but if no one else calls them that, you won’t get any searches, traffic or sales by using that as a keyword in search.

• Google offers Insights for Search, which helps you understand how many times specific phrases are searched. There’s a lot of other information there, too, so bookmark the site so you can refer to it again easily.

3. What makes your product unique?

Understanding two or three unique features of your product over the competition will make it much easier to write good ads that people will click! Speaking of ad copy, Google ads are very short. You have a 25 character headline, two lines of 35 characters each and a website address (visible URL) to convince people to click.

4.  Where will you send people when they click?

Google calls this the Destination URL. Most everyone else calls it a landing page. It is rarely a good idea to send people to your home page. Why? Think of it from a user’s standpoint – they are looking for something specific. Going to your home page doesn’t necessarily answer their question directly. Imagine if you were searching for a specific type of digital camera, you clicked on an ad for Amazon, and you ended up on the Amazon home page. You don’t want to have to search through the entire site to find what you were looking for – and neither do your visitors want to search through your site.

• Put a clear action on the landing page: buy, register (with a form), watch a video. When possible, give them just one choice for what they can do from your page. DO link your logo on that page to your homepage.

5. How much are you willing to spend?

Clicks from Google can be quite expensive, and it’s easy to spend a lot of money fast. The first thing you need to decide is how much money you are willing to spend daily and what is your expectation for what you’ll get for that money. You can set up a campaign so that the maximum cost per click is very low, but if you set it too low, you won’t get any traffic at all because your ads won’t be on the first page. Depending on the product or service, plan to spend between $0.75 and $3.00 per click. To get enough data to begin changing your campaigns, you will need about 100 clicks or more (this depends on a lot of things, but that’s a good rule of thumb).

6. Where do you want to show your ads?

Google offers two different categories of ad segmentation: geographic and type of site.  With geographic targeting, you can select to whom your ad is displayed, based on countries, states, regions, cities or even zip codes.

The second type of targeting is by search or by content. If you select search, your ad will be shown on a number of “search partners” – including Google’s primary search engine. If you select content, your ad will be shown on any number of websites where the owner is making some additional money showing Google ads. Google spiders these advertiser sites for the keywords you select to bid on, and shows your ads to what should be an appropriate audience. BIG POINT: If you choose to use both search and content, set up separate campaigns for each. Do. Not. Mix. Them.

The next post in this series will discuss how to choose keywords and write ad copy.

Second, Google tests using sitelinks in ads.

Third, Google tests adding images in-line with AdWords results.

Today, they are modifying the way that they are showing additional information by using their “more” methodology.

I again searched for “office supplies” to see if the images were still appearing below to the Shoplet.com ad (see the post from yesterday).  They were not. Instead,  was showing a result with a little + next to it (same as their “Show options…” icon).

When you click on the +, the images associated with that ad take up a big percentage of the right-rail, pushing other ads way down the page.

Also visible on this test is something I mentioned yesterday. The “Google Checkout” icon that appears with the ad includes an orange note with $10 off – that is the first I have noticed a change to the check out icon.

One additional test that they are running is similar to the images test.  Google is showing  in-line maps for companies that have local stores.

Interestingly, I was able to get the capture of the map folded, but when I clicked on the “Show more” icon, the option to see the map went away. In fact, the search results page didn’t resolve properly, and I had to rerun the search. Unfortunately, the map option was completely gone when I ran the search again several times.

The one issue that really struck me with showing the map in-line, was that the example was a top placement for the ad. When the image was unfolded, it pushed down the organic results by half the screen! The in-line images shared by Search Engine Land pushed results down somewhat, but the map really took over the page.

Interesting things afoot – and with all of this testing coming relatively closely on the heels of Bing’s launch, methinks that Google is being reactive to what they perceive as a very strong competitor.

According to a Search Engine Land post this morning, Google seems to be testing sitelinks in Adwords (see the image and discussion on their site).

Google ALSO seems to be testing images in the right rail. In an attempt to recreate the ad that was shown in the article above, I did some associated searches. When I searched for “office supplies” the below results showed up in the right rail.

What is unclear is whether there is any user control over which products are shown or if these are based on Google shopping feeds.

What was most interesting to me is that not only did they show two product images, but the “Google Checkout” image was not in-line with the ad, but stuck WAY out to the right – a guaranteed eye-stopper for that ad compared to other ads.

Since Google tends to test different things at different times regionally, I don’t know if I am just late on seeing this particular format, or if this is something that Google has just launched. In any event, I certainly am glad that I am not one of the competitors trying to get sales from “office supplies” – and, to some level, not Shoplet.com – I wonder what this additional exposure will do to their conversion rates (although they do have the magic 50% off messaging).

Another, more subtle change is that they also have a little addition to their Google checkout logo with “$10 off!” in orange.

So, have you seen anything along these lines in AdWords testing near you?

After looking more closely at my campaign changes for the week, it seems that much of the degradation in conversion rates were based on changes to the content campaigns, not just the search campaigns (although some were affected).

Pardon what is going to be a bit of a rant. I want to warn you, so that if you are a Google-phile, you can walk away now….

According to a post on The Search Agents blog, Google Moves Ads to the Left, Clickthrough Rate Jumps 10%, Google moved the PPC ads from right justified to right next to the natural search results, starting around August 18. Zack MacLean shows some nice graphics and information about the change.

Now for the DARK side of this change…

<rant>

On Tuesday, I reorganized my content campaigns so that I had separate adgroups for banners and for text ads. I wanted to test some things in creative ads, and having them organized this way makes sense. I was anticipating some changes, but not nearly what I saw.

Starting on August 18, my costs sky-rocketed and conversion rate dove. I was absolutely confused!  Now, after three days of head-scratching, soul-searching and spreadsheet-hell, I find out that it wasn’t me – No, Google, it was you.

At first, I thought my campaign reorganization was to blame. When you make big campaign changes, it can take some time for results to even out, especially since I am using the Conversion Optimizer on content campaigns – so I expected fluctuation – but not a 50% drop in conversion rates AND a 30% increase in costs… IN ONE DAY.

Here is the summary from Google Adwords. The change date is highlighted in yellow.

Higher costs, lower conversions.

So, those of you who are used to looking at daily results in Google Adwords (or in Analytics) can see the problem. Cost per conversion jumped DRAMATICALLY and conversion rate plummeted.

So, by changing the location of the Adwords ads, Google has increased their profits and decreased their value to their customers considerably. Unfortunately, what Google seems to not understand is that people have something called “fixed budgets.” Yes, we do not have endlessly deep pockets from which we can pull money to put in your coffers. But on the other hand, you have us over a barrel – you have the traffic, can set the price (auction my a** - there are enough black-box metrics that you control to keep us all in the dark), and now you are finding new and creative ways to gouge your advertisers.

So, I am back to the drawing board with setting up my campaign optimizations. Just when I was getting on a positive roll. Thanks, Google, because I really DO want to spend all of my time optimizing, tweaking and changing my PPC campaigns. Really, I don’t have anything else to do.

</rant>

Now I feel better. Oh, and I would suggest that you look at your campaigns, too, to see if your metrics are slipping around the same timeframe.

Conclusion: changes to the positioning of ads will increase the likelihood that people will click on them. This may also mean that people are likely to click on more ads before committing to one advertisers product or service. That being the case, costs per acquisition will go up, conversion rates will go down, and how you think about ad positioning may change.

So, for those of you who couldn’t leave your desks, or did attend but haven’t succeeded at being in two places at once, here are links to videos, blog posts and audo files (for audiophiles) for SES San Jose 2009.

SES Jan Jose 2009 YouTube Video Channel - Put together by SES Conference Expo. Watch a number of one-on-one interviews and more.

SES Blog Coverage Wrap up - at Search Engine Strategies blog

TopRank SES San Jose 2009 Wrap Up – Puzzle Solved - Summary and links to articles covering a number of different conference sessions from TopRank Blog.

Session Coverage

Day 1: Tuesday August 11, 2009

Opening Keynote by Clay Shirky, recording by WebmasterRadio.fm

Overheard on Twitter – SES San Jose Day 1 – Interesting observations about Twitter feeds from SES on SEOMoz

(I have not included to Search Fundamentals Track).

Session Track: Search and Community

• How to Optimize for Search and Engage the Community, live blogging by Patty Adams of Vertical Measures and Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Round Table
• SEO for the Greater Good: Using Search to Find Missing Persons. Not able to find someone who live-blogged this. If you did, please send me a note and I will update and link to your article.
• Turning the Social Web into Real ROI - covered by Chris Crum for SmallBusinessNews.com. Focuses primarily on Facebook discussion.
• Turning the Social Web into Real ROI - as covered by Patty Adams of Vertical Measures, for Search Engine Roundtable
• Stop the Presses!: How SEO Can Help Save the Publishing Industry – I couldn’t find an English blog post about this one, but if you speak Korean (I think), check out this blog post at Hezilnuk.tistory.com
• Keeping it Local: The Convergence of Smart Phones & Local Search  - Coverage provided by Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Round Table

Session Track: Search for the C-Suite

• The adaptive CMO, live blogging by Kyle Bumgardner of MarketerInsight
• The View from the CMO’s Office - Live Blogging from Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable
• Integration: The New CMO Imperative – Again, I don’t have an article to link to here. If you blogged this session, let me know and I will link to your coverage.
• Budget Migration: Going Digital Without Impacting Your Brand - Ok, I’m cheating here. This is live coverage from SES New York, by Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media. I really wish they had covered San Jose, because I really enjoy their style.
• Performance Pricing Models: What Every CMO Should Know! – Coverage by Virginia Nussey for the Bruce Clay blog

Session Track: Search & Measurement

• Always Be Testing: Marketing Optimization in Challenging Times - Search Engine Round Table, Patty Adams through “Cover It Live”
• Creating a Web Analytics Culture - Live blogging by Jolina Pettice of TopRank Marketing
• How to Turn Your Web Analytics into a Money Making Machine - Coverage by Jolina Pettice of TopRank Marketing
• Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers - Coverage by Eric Dudley at MarketerInsight
• Extreme Makeover Conversion Edition – Couldn’t find a blog of this, but would love to be able to read through coverage of this session!

Session Track: Search & the Future

• Search: Where to Next? – Microsoft Advertising Community by Lori Ho
• The Next Wave of Online Video - Appropriately, a video provided by Steve Wiideman of SEOExpert.tv
• The Next Wave of Online Video - Coverage by Mike Sachoff for WebProNews
• Don’t Call it a Comeback: Semantic Technology and Search - Coverage by Mark Johnson, who was on the panel
• Beyond Googling: Where Will Your Customers Be Searching in 5 Years? - On initial glance through, very nice coverage by Derek Edmond of AimClear 
• Launching A Global Website - Coverage by Gaurav Sharma of Think Mantra, published on Search Engine Roundtable
• Landing Page Testing and Tuning, live blogging by Tom Dressler of MarketerInsight

Day 2: Wednesday August 12, 2009

Afternoon Keynote: Nicholas Fox.  Audio file at WebmasterRadio.fm

Overheard on Twitter – SES San Jose Day 2 – Interesting observations about Twitter feeds from SES on SEOMoz

(I have not included to Fundamentals Track).

Session Track: Search for the Small Business

• Small Voices, Big Impact: Social Media for the Little Guy – Covered by David Carberry for Search Engine Guide
• Search On a Dime - Covered by Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Analytics and Website Optimizer, Secrets Revealed! – Coverage by Guarav Sharma of Think Mantra for Search Engine Roundtable
• Turning Simple Change into Big Profit - Coverage by Gaurav Sharma at Jatin Mahindra.com

Session Track: Vertical & B2B

• Credit Crunch: The Death of Last Click Attribution and its Impact on Paid Search Advertising - Coverage by Virginia Nussey for Bruce Clay Blog
• Bing Toolbox: Your One-Stop Shop for Better ROI - (Sponsored Session) Keri Morgret of Strike Models for Search Engine Roundtable
• Four Paths to Success in a Tough Travel Economy - Virginia Nussey for Bruce Clay’s blog
• The BuyerSphere Project: Understanding B2B Buyer Patterns – I couldn’t find any information about this session, and am really interested in reading about it.

Session Track: Geek Speak

• Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues - Jolina Pettice for TopRank Marketing Blog
• Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues - Serena Hillman for International Internet Marketing Association (IIMA Online)
• Landing Page Testing & Tuning - MarketerInsight, written by Tom Dressler
• You are Multi-Channel, but Your SEM Vendor Isn’t! – I couldn’t find any blog posts about this sessions.
• Real World Multivariate Testing – Again, no blog coverage that I could find

Session Track: ClickZ/OMS

• Igniting Viral Campaigns: Leveraging Consumer-Generated Content - Coverage by Adam Singer of Top Rank Marketing
• Facebook Ads: Reaching Prospects Earlier In The Decision Cycle - (Sponsored Session) Kyle Bumgardner for MarketerInsight
• Social Media: Managing Conversations and Reputations When the User Is In Control - IIMA Online
• Social Media: White Hat vs. Black Hat - David Snyder for Search Engine Journal
• Social Media: White Hat vs. Black Hat - Virginia Nussey for Bruce Clay
• Social Media: White Hat vs. Black Hat - Covered by Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable
• Social Media: White Hat vs. Black Hat - Rebecca Kelley coverage for 10e20
• Social Media: White Hat vs. Black Hat - TopRank Marketing’s Lee Odden (one of the presenters) discusses the session and SES

There were a number of good posts about the Social Media White Hat vs. Black Hat session. My favorite is the one by Lee Odden, and his choice of images made me remember my childhood addiction to Mad Magazine.

Day 3: Thursday August 13, 2009

Morning Keynote: Charlene Li.  Audio file at WebmasterRadio.fm

Session Track: Organic

• SEO Through Blogs & Feeds - Coverage by Patty Adams and Barry Schwartz for Search Engine Roundtable
• SEO Through Blogs & Feeds - Adam Singer coverage for TopRank Marketing
• SEO Through Blogs & Feeds - Article covering session, plus more information by Doug Caverly for WebProNews
• News Search SEO - Coverage by Adam Singer for TopRank Marketing
• Advanced SEO Roundtable:  What is it Really? And Where is it Going? - Coverage by Virginia Nussey at Bruce Clay
• Advanced SEO Roundtable:  What is it Really? And Where is it Going? - Kyle Bumgardner for MarketerInsight
• Advanced SEO Roundtable:  What is it Really? And Where is it Going? - IIMA – Serena Hillman
• Storyteller Marketing: The Art of Storytelling Matches Up with the Business of Marketing - Couldn’t find any 2009 coverage of this, but here is a link for 2008 coverage from Bruce Clay’s blog:  Storyteller Marketing: The Art of Storytelling Matches Up with the Business of Marketing 

Session Track: Advanced PPC

• Advanced Paid Search Techniques - by “Socks” from Affiliates Insider
• The New Search ROI: Measuring More than Conversion - Virginia Nussey for Bruce Clay’s blog
• Advanced Keyword Research – Again, the only live coverage I could find is in Korean
• Brainstorming the Paid Search Super Tool – This sounds like it was an interesting session, but I couldn’t find any original posts about it.

Session Track: Organizational

• Electronic Contacts and The Long Arm of the Law - Coverage posted by Virginia Nussey at Bruce Clay’s blog
• Brand, Trademark & Reputation Management - Coverage by Manoj Jasra for Web Analytics World
• Independent SEMs/SEOs – Issues & Answers - Keri Morgret of Strike Models and Gaurav Sharma of Think Mantra coverage for Search Engine Roundtable
• In-House SEO: Structuring the Organization for Success – couldn’t find any blog posts about this

Session Track: Geek Speak

• Ads in a Quality Score World - Article with coverage at WebProNews by Mike Sachoff
• Follow the Carrot: Cool Mobile Apps – no specific blog coverage or articles associated with this session that I could find
• Images & Search Engines: Getting the Full Picture - Article and coverage from Chris Crum for WebProNews
• Search Becomes the Display OS – Couldn’t find coverage of this session

(I have not included the clinic track coverage since those tend to be very interactive and difficult to follow when not present).

If there are any other resources or blog posts that are informational that I have missed, please let me know. I have tried to include posts from a variety of authors – and have tried not to be preferential to any particular blog, however there are several that were great at covering the conference, and I suggest looking at their full coverage, too.