Check out the job posting here: SEM Specialist

Winning a trip to an industry conference may not sound like a great prize – but SMX Advanced is a pretty great time AND the Search Commander will be there. Maybe he’ll even ride the train with us again.

Help out your favorite Amplify Interactive blogger by helping them get their posts seen. Link to them, Retweet them, submit to Sphinn, etc.  Any blog post from the beginning of the year is eligible. The contest will end on May 30th. I’ll let you know who won!

Ben & Spencer pose with their MAX Award

Amplify Interactive was awarded the “best single medium advertising campaign” at the 2010 AMA MAX Awards. Amplify Interactive’s work on a campaign for our client SawStop was recognized as the best among 8 entries in the category from other Portland area agencies & companies including a campaign from our office-mates Grady Britton as well as our partner eROI, and Intel (with whom we tied for 1st place) among others.

Great job on the AWARD WINNING work guys!

Links to related info:

• Press Release: Amplify Interactive wins a 2010 AMA MAX Award
• Our entry/case study: PPC Campaign Domination – Launching SawStop’s New Professional Cabinet Saw with PPC Advertising
• AMA MAX Awards
• Pictures from the 2010 AMA MAX Awards Ceremony
• Our series of posts on how to  “PPC Campaign Domination“

We’re always looking for clients who want to do award winning campaigns. Follow the link to find out more about our PPC Management Services.

From the PSU site:

“This breakfast is part of a quarterly discussion of digital marketing with industry professionals, moderated this time by the Portland search engine marketing association, SEMpdx.”

Our panel should be really great. There’s several folks from the SEMpdx board speaking about Universal Search (see my earlier post “SEO Tips for Universal Search“) + we’ll have analytics expert Aaron Gray on hand. We’ll each be presenting a few key points and then taking Q&A.

The session is totally free. Just register. Here’s a link for more information on the PSU Digital Marketing Breakfast at PSU. Hope to see you there!

Here is what the team from Amplify Interactive thinks will happen with SEM in 2010:

Ben

It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon here and just say the words “social media” – everyone is in a frenzy about this, and I think it’s valuable and a must-do – but replacing search? You’re crazy. The current state of social media marketing reminds me of when search started to gain widespread acceptance – marketers are just frazzled with trying to figure out what they should be doing.  That being said:

1. Definitely more convergence of search & social. Search engines will continue to work on ways to incorporate signals from social media. And this is badly needed – harnessing real time data from twitter & facebook status updates is a pretty great way to catch ‘breaking’ news. However – I think it’s ludicrous to assume that social can or will handle the same functions that search can. Yes – you can find a brand and interact with them. Hell, you can even ask your friends/followers for recommendations or help with a problem – is this the same as search? No.
2. Continued emergence of Bing and hopefully some improvements to their algorithm. Assuming this Yahoo/Bing deal goes through, the search engine space will get a lot more interesting.
3. More emergence of vertical search. Whether Google starts to incorporate tabs for travel, restaurants, etc, or whether Google “killer-ettes” (Danny Sullivan’s term) continue to emerge and serve a specific market much better than Google does (like urbanspoon) – I think we’ll all be better off…. please don’t let Google acquire you.
4. On my wishlist?: Bing, Yahoo & Facebook need to step up their game for making their advertiser interface better and easier to use. Also – more editor tools for Mac users please.
5. Another wish list item: Better education and understanding and acceptance of content as a driver for search and social.
6. Another wish list item: Better understanding of Web analytics and what measurements matter to you… and how to act on the right KPIs. If I hear “our hits are down” one more time…

Blu

In 2010 I do not see a whole lot changing as far as search engines adjusting their algorithms however I do foresee a continued push for companies and individuals to own more of a share of their targeted results through interactive media, social media and content syndication. These days search is so much more than simply optimizing a website or managing bids, it is migrating so that search marketers need to effectively be able to setup and manage multiple third party platforms to achieve their goals.

Christian

I think there will be even more of a convergence between social media and SEO. After all, the goal of having an optimized website is getting found by your ideal customer… this will be the same objective for social media as well (without being too pushy). While it definitely is now, it’ll be more of a focal point for search engine marketers in 2010.

I also believe more and more websites will be “doing the right thing” (i.e. be optimized for their specific target audience) which will only make it even more important to continue creating optimized content to have a dynamic and organic website. More competition is fine if you’re on top of optimized content creation.

And lastly, online reputation monitoring will be even more needed in 2010, as social review websites, Twitter, Facebook and more continue to harvest conversations about you and your brand. If you pretend that the conversations aren’t happening and do not address them head-on, then you’ll be missing out on making relationships with the main “influencers” for your brand and identity.

Spencer

Considering SEO and SEM are dead, Team Amplify must be zombies because we are still around. This makes trends 1,2, and 3….BRAINS!

Seriously though, while staying away from mobile and local search (which are increasingly becoming one in the same), and staring deep into my crystal ball these are my predictions for SEM 2010:

1.) Rise of interactive advertising for streaming web-based content: Perhaps this is more of 2011-12 prediction, but the recent deal struck between Comcast and NBC Universal’s parent company General Electric shows that high quality entertainment is continuing its migration to web. Contrary to what disgruntled Comcast customers may think, Comcast is not stupid. Comcast sees a vast arena to market products through interactive advertising via the web content, whether they are saying it or not.

Just imagine you are watching a live streaming game (using Comcast’s high speed service) on ESPN360, and during the scheduled commercial break, a Nike ad appears. An ad serving system, or Nike’s media buyer, recognizes that you would probably be more receptive to this ad since you are already watching a sporting event. Sounds like TV right? Wait though, at the end of the ad, you as an engaged audience member are given the option to buy it from, say, Zappos, Foot Locker or Nike themselves without having to leave your seat. The best part is, for Nike or its retail partner it is measurable, highly targeted, efficient and featured along side high quality entertainment that has helped sell products for years. This is a very basic example, as product placements, and promotional tie-ins make possibilities endless. Combine these benefits with localized advertising results for big-ticket items such as cars or dishwashers this could be a match made in e-commerce heaven.

Comcast is already the only major cable television and high speed internet provider in many large markets. It has the customer base and infrastructure through these channels to deliver content, now their own, with targeted spots on a customer to customer basis.  They can now charge for the content, and possibly charge on a CPC or CPA basis for its advertisers to get interactive. Get ready for it.

2.) Social Media aggregation: I highlighted this in a recent interview I did for my friends at Idea Mensch, and I stole it from the very bright Jeremiah Owyang. The jist of it is for even web savvy people it is difficult to maintain more than 3 three social media profiles, and for businesses it is even more difficult. What aggregation gives users and businesses (especially) is a one-stop shop to manage all of their social media profiles, no matter how niche the segment is. Scaling social media is difficult, and aggregation is the first of many steps in solving this scaling dilemma.

3.) Amplify Interactive kicking ass and taking names: Because that’s what we do around here.

Check with me around this time next year, and tell me how foolish I was, but rest assured number 3 is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Care to share what you think how SEM will evolve in 2010? Feel free to leave us a comment!

We had our biggest Q1 ever – and we worked a lot. To celebrate, the team wanted to go to the gun range & blow off some steam. Seems like a weird activity – but it’s a lot of fun. Check out the pics of the carnage. Plus, with one of our newest clients Crimson Trace Laser Grips on board – we wanted to get a little insight into their customers and their product. Yep – lasers are cool. In case you’re wondering – Christian is the best shot of the group.

New Clients

We’re excited to be providing SEM services for the following new clients!

• Real Pro Systems
• Hinds Instruments
• YRG – We’ve partnered with YRG to provide SEO services on a couple of joint projects
• R2C Group
  
• Castor & Pollux
• Crimson Trace Laser Grips

Upcoming Events

SEMpdx Presents Online Marketing Summit 2009

Online Marketing Summit Whistle Stop Tour – Portland – June 29
The premier educational event for marketing professionals is coming to Portland as part of its 18 City Whistle Stop Tour. From Boston to San Francisco, join 4,000 of your marketing peers as they share ideas, hear from expert practitioners, and learn best practices in the areas of: Social Media, Search, Email, Analytics, Behavioral Targeting, and Website Strategy.
Request a discounted seat today with discount code SEMPDX20

We’re Also Doing the Following

• 5/6: Portland Communicators Conference (If you’re an SEMpdx member – use your discount code)
• 5/12: SEMpdx Event “SEO, Meet User Experience”
• 5/20 – 5/22: WebVisions
• 5/20: WebVisions Workshops: Tips for Using Search Engine Tools to Increase Site Traffic and Performance Optimization for Web and Mobile. (If you’re an SEMpdx member – use your discount code)
• 6/2-6/3: SMX Advanced Seattle (If you’re an SEMpdx member – use your discount code)
• 6/29: Online Marketing Summit

More Amplify Interactive Stuff

Client Testimonial

“Amplify Interactive handles all  of our search engine marketing needs and we couldn’t be happier.  Coming from a direct marketing background, I firmly believe in constantly testing and refining campaigns to optimize effectiveness and the team at Amplify excels at just that. I have come to appreciate their disciplined approach to managing every aspect of our SEM campaigns, from key word evaluation to copy tests. I don’t worry about the search component of my marketing mix. Amplify expertly manages a complex set of campaigns and makes it look easy.”

Mark Pennington Director of Marketing – SawStop

Our most popular blog posts last month

• Are Search Engine Users Getting Smarter?
• SEO Best Practices for a Site Redesign
• SEMpdx SearchFest 2009 Impressions
• Don’t Short-Change Your Analytics
• Hello My Name Is Robots.txt
  

I think that’s it for this update. Thanks for reading this far about our little Portland Oregon SEM Agency!

Amplify Interactive News

The team took a night off and we all went to dinner and a Winterhawks game together late in January… In typical fashion – I didn’t take any pictures except this one of Christian & his wife Jess with Tom-A-Hawk. We also got a wicked huge piece of artwork for the office from a friend of mine that we’re babysitting for a few weeks – really livens up the place eh?

Client News

• Polygon Homes in the News: “Successful Home Sales in the Suburbs” that talks about Polygon’s success in home sales despite the down market
• Congratulations to Coyote Point on the launch of their new product – the Equalizer GX
• Tripwire announces amazing growth in 2008

New Clients

Unfortunately, we aren’t allowed to disclose our latest three additions to the client roster… But we’re hoping to be able to make a couple of announcements next time around. We are pretty excited about a few potential agreements that we are working on right now as well. So fingers crossed that 2009 will be looking really good for us pretty soon.

Upcoming Marketing & Networking Events

SearchFest 2009

SEMpdx SearchFest 2009 is coming up. SearchFest is Portland’s only all-day search engine marketing (SEM) conference, and is among the biggest SEM conferences in the Northwest. We are proud of the fact that we can bring in speakers that you will only see by traveling to out-of-town and much more expensive events. Don’t believe me? Check our line up against SMX West and Search Engine Strategies – they both charge as much as $1,995 dollars for many of the same speakers you’ll see at SearchFest for as little as $179.

SEMpdx has done an amazing job of putting together this year’s event. Our keynote presenter is Danny Sullivan – often referred to as “The Godfather of Search” – he’s even got his own Wikipedia page. Basically, what we’re saying is that you DO NOT want miss this event. Follow the link for more information about SearchFest and get the “Partner” rate when you use this discount code to register: BOARD-SEMPDXSF0920

We’ll be participating in or attending the following events

• 2/11 (TONIGHT): SEMpdx Presents Web Analytics Wednesday
• 2/18: PDX Mindshare
• 2/19: Ben is doing a Webinar for OEN “Capturing Market Share in a Recession with SEM“
• 2/24: SEMpdx Webinar: You Can’t Go Home Again: Usability in a Search-driven World
• 3/10: SEMpdx Presents SearchFest 2009 Featuring Danny Sullivan

In Case You Missed It

• We’re Kind of a Big Deal! Ben was quoted in Portland Monthly about the state of the SEM industry

Our most popular blog posts last month

• Why Are There Two Search Boxes in Google? (This is a post from March 2008? Looks like it got a lot of StumbleUpon traffic in January for some reason… We’re intrigued and investigating.)
  
• Building an SEO Foundation for Your Site – Content Optimization
• Keyword Research Directly Impacts Your SEO Success
• Twitter essentials
• SEO for PR

Amplify Interactive – Client Testimonial

“In early 2007, Adaptis selected Amplify Interactive to help us with our corporate website redesign project. The Amplify team started making a positive difference in our web identity almost immediately. They identified changes that we could implement quickly and for very little cost, allowing us to improve our current site while we were still working on the new design. Amplify Interactive, was great about answering questions and explaining some fairly sophisticated SEO concepts in a way that our team was able to understand and, more importantly, incorporate into our new site. The Amplify team had well-thought-out, useful suggestions for us every step of the way, from designing the site map to keyword usage in copywriting all the way to designing a favicon for our browser bar. The site metrics reports and analysis that [they] provided enabled us to make informed decisions during the redesign stage.

Our new site debuted in May of 2008, and I am very pleased to say that we have seen a strongly positive trend in our site metrics, such as a minimized bounce rate and increased traffic to our identified key pages. Additionally, we consistently show up in the top five search results for our selected keywords in Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live searches. Simple site metrics are fairly easy to get – what the Amplify team brings to the table is the ability to analyze the metrics, provide insight and interpretation of the numbers and suggestions on how to improve your future results. We would strongly recommend the Amplify team to anyone looking to improve their web presence.”

Scott McLeod – Director of Sales – Adaptis

I think that’s it for this update. Thanks for reading this far about our little Portland Oregon SEM Agency!

See the article – Traffic Control (page 44 of the printed version)

PPC CODE PLACEMENT
Google AdWords and Yahoo Marketing require the snippet of pay per click tracking code to be placed within a different section of a web page. For Google AdWords it is anywhere within the <BODY> section of the conversion web page and for Yahoo Marketing it is anywhere within the <HEAD> section of the conversion web page.

Each engine only requires the pay per click tracking code to be placed on the pre-defined conversion page NOT every page of the Web site. You may have multiple conversions throughout your site, so the code will need to be placed on each conversion page. For example, if the conversion action that you want to track is a form submission, then the conversion page would be the thank_you page users are directed to AFTER they have submitted the form. This is the page (thank_you) that should contain the PPC tracking code NOT the form page.

ANALYTICAL CODE PLACEMENT
Unlike the PPC tracking code, analytical code must be placed on every web page of your site (or at least, every page of your site that you want to track). Now there are many solutions out there however most, if not all, require the code to be placed anywhere within the <BODY> section of the web page. At Amplify we strongly recommend placing the analytical tracking code towards the very bottom of the <BODY> section so the code does not interfere with organic search placement results. The same holds true for any PPC code that is required to exist within the <BODY> section of a Web page.

The only disadvantage of placing the code towards the bottom of the <BODY> section is that if a web page is slow to load and the user backs out before the tracking code is initiated, then that user’s session will not be accounted for. However in most cases this is not a problem and usually only accounts for a small percentage of the total user sessions.

RECAP
Analytical Code = Every Page
PPC Code = Conversion Page(s) Only

*Conversion pages should contain both, the analytical and PPC tracking codes.
Need help with building and managing your PPC campaigns? Talk to us about our PPC  management services.