Joseph Kerschbaum

Joseph Kerschbaum is Client Services Director with Clix Marketing and has over 6 years of experience working in the search engine marketing industry. Lots of great things have been happening for Joe lately. A few of the accomplishments that he is most proud of are his book with Wiley/Sybex, PPC Marketing: An Hour A Day and “running a kick-ass results driven agency that makes everyday an adventure is another big (ongoing) accomplishment.” Kerschbaum’s favorite aspect of marketing that is unique to SEM is the ability to see results in real-time, a level of visibility that is not available in traditional forms of marketing. Optimizing campaigns to improve performance is also one of Kerschbaum’s favorite aspects of working in the SEM industry and he was kind enough to share his top 5 tips to optimize your remarketing campaigns.

1. Adjust Your Conversion Actions

Remarketing gives you a second chance to get in front of non-converters. Understanding why someone didn’t initially convert will increase the performance of your remarketing campaign. A strategy that has proven to be successful is diversifying your conversion actions. There are several factors, such as buying cycle and complexity, which affect a user’s decision to convert. If a lead generation landing page was not successful, maybe a simpler product page would prove to be more effective. Testing out different landing pages and conversion actions will the help you understand and predict the behavior of your audience, therefore increasing the success of your remarketing campaign.

2. Image Ads

A picture is worth a thousand words. If a user has visited your site, then they should be familiar with your logo and product. Display ads that are consistent with your brand and site can increase brand awareness and familiarity. Take into consideration this concept when designing your image ads:

• Company logo
• Headline
• Short list of two benefits
• Images of products
• Call-to-action
• Company logo

3. ‘Come Back…’ Ad Copy

Messaging that directly acknowledges that the user has visited your site can be extremely effective. Use ad copy that contains special offers unique to the users within your remarketing campaign, for example: “Come Back & Receive 15% Off Your Next Purchase!” This tactic can be viewed as a little creepy, but if it improves your CTR and conversion rate, keep doing it!

4. Target Segment Strategies

Precise targeting allows you to deliver specific ads to users who have visited certain pages on your website. Depending on how precise you want your targeting strategy to be, ads can be delivered to users who have visited your shopping cart, signed up for a newsletter, or your free trial confirmation page. By breaking down the behavior of these users, you can customize ads for each segment to bring them back to your site and help them convert.

5. Test! Test! Test!

Remarketing gives you a chance to make a second impression and finding the most effective strategy can be achieved through testing. Not every strategy will be successful, but the key to building a strong remarketing campaign lies within finding the right combination of structure, creativity, and messaging. Extensive testing will allow you to discover the ideal balance between all these variables and help yield the optimum performance of your remarketing campaign.

Kerschbaum’s favorite quote is: “The definition of madness is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.” Joe is always focused on looking at tasks and projects from a different perspective, which is extremely relevant when it comes to SEM, as demonstrated by the 5 tips listed above. Kerschbaum’s final words of wisdom: “There is no time to rest: you have to continually get better and smarter.”

Do you have any remarketing tips that have proved to be effective? Sound off in the comments below! Happy remarketing!

So let’s get moving and see what was shared in the latter half of January 2012:

6 Reasons To Bid On Branded PPC Keywords

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While more about paid search than SEO, there are some good SEO nuggets of info in this post that was written by the boss man here at Amplify. One nice nugget? If you bid on branded keywords in paid search and have a high position in organic search, you get a nice bump in click through rate and conversion rate! How much? You’ll have to read the article to see.

.htaccess Files For The Rest of Us

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I’d like to think most SEOs know what an htaccess file is and what it does. I’d also like to think that most SEOs could give specific recommendations of what to include in that file instead of just “you need 301 redirects.” If you don’t know much about htaccess files or need a nice refresher, this is a fantastic resource.

What’s New With Sitemaps

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The Google Webmaster Central blog keeps us up-to-date with some recent changes they’ve made with information they’re presenting about your submitted sitemaps in Google Webmaster Tools. I’m loving the new visualizations they’re showing!

Google – Page Layout Algorithm Update

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Google rolled out a new algorithmic change that looks at the layout of the webpage and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on the result. If you tend to have an excessive amount of ads “above the fold”, Google will start to dock you in the organic search listings, as they want to show relevant results to users. Google is reporting that this algorithmic change is affecting less than 1% of searches globally… so, really, if you’re just going overboard with the ads, then this might affect you.

21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic

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This post is a BEAST! And it beasts, too! Presented are some sure-fire ways that you help increase traffic to your blog. It hits on everything from performing keyword research for topic ideas to content syndication. A lot of these tactics, I would think, a lot of bloggers already do… but they don’t do a good enough job at to really see the results.

4+ Recommendations To Enhance B2B SEO Initiatives

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This article hits on four things marketers can implement to increase search referrals as well as help promote link building and social sharing. The author information tagging item (with using the rel=author tag) is something that we really are pushing to our clients.

Anchor Text Distribution: Avoiding Over Optimization

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This was a quality YouMoz that was posted recently that goes over some good facts on how to properly define an anchor text optimization strategy. Geoff Kenyon suggests a 7:3 ratio (non-targeted keyword in anchor text to targeted keyword in anchor text) and presents some data that he has collected.

My Own Personal Christian Reads…

I’m currently reading Equally Shared Parenting, as my wife and I have decided that this is the kind of parenting style we’re actually kind of already exhibiting and wish to really pursue it.

Readers Read… (So I Don’t Have To)

What have I missed? Did you read anything really awesome in late January that you’d like to share? Please let me know in the comments!

How’s you new year’s resolutions going? I use to set new year’s resolutions but stopped because my list started to look like this list. It always felt so cliche to me too. I like setting goals in life but usually just do it throughout the year.

I’ve scoured my Google Reader this month to filter out the stuff that will help you take your PPC campaigns to new levels this year. Read on and optimize…

Amplified Gold Posts

• Build Stronger PPC Relationships: Communication with clients is critical in an agency role. After working at an agency for almost a year I’ve learned how big of a disconnect there can be between clients and agencies. Take some tips from this great post.
• 6 Reasons to Bid on Branded Keywords: From our own Ben Lloyd. There are always blog posts about bidding on branded keywords. Ben does a really great job of summarizing multiple reasons to bid on branded keywords.
• 5 Resolutions for PPC Ad Testing: This is my own post from earlier this month. If you have not read it yet, check it out. Learn some tips on improving your ad testing.

Amplified Platinum Posts

• Tips For Managing Negative Keywords: Negative keywords in an account can get out of control. Learn some tips on ways to manage keywords more effectively.
• Top 5 Tips For Effective Landing Page Testing: Are you running landing page tests? Save yourself some time and pain by reading this post. I’ve learned a few of these tips the hard way.
• Why Overreacting To Data Is a Bad Thing: Overreacting to data is another lesson that I’ve learned the hard way. Never assume a generic expensive keyword is NOT providing value. Many times these keywords assist towards a conversion further down the sales funnel.

Amplified Diamond Posts

• 7 PPC Resolutions to Keep You Focused and Inspired: This article contains some great recommendations that will help re-energize your approach to PPC campaigns. Anybody managing PPC campaigns can take away some inspiration from this post.
• Key Points From Frederick Vallaeys Interview: Frederick Vallaey is the Adwords product evangelist. This interview has some great insider knowledge on the direction Adwords is going and tips to optimize your PPC campaigns.

What’s a post you read in January that you bookmarked or saved? Share in the comments.

Here are a couple tunes that I’ve really enjoyed lately. The first one is a single off The Black Keys most recent album. I did not see the video until recently and it’s a must watch.

We’ve answered this question over and over again. Every situation calls for it’s own solution and you should test to find the answer for you, but by and large we’ve found that buying branded keywords in PPC is a good idea. Here’s all my thoughts on it. Buckle your seatbelt.

1. If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It

A properly managed PPC campaign is being managed and optimized to a performance goal that supports a business goal. All keywords and ads are measured against that goal. It’s pretty simple – if a keyword is supporting the goal by helping the campaign meet or beat the performance goal, then leave it in there. If it’s not helping the campaign perform, then get rid of it.

Sometimes though, you don’t know whether something is broken or not until you test it. I absolutely encourage you to test whether or not having branded keywords in your campaign is effective, but that judgement should be made based on data.

2. The Power of PPC Ads and Organic Listings on the Same Page

Don’t like my argument above? Then let’s look at some data. NYU’s Stern School of Business did a study in late 2009 called: “Analyzing the Relationship between Organic and Sponsored Search Advertising: Positive, Negative or Zero Interdependence?” [Links to a PDF] Don’t worry you don’t have to read it or interpret the numbers – I did it for you. Here’s a breakdown of a couple key findings:

Click Through: Combine SEO + PPC for Best Results

Click Through Rates increase for terms where you have both an organic (SEO) and paid (PPC) presence. Not only do you own more of the search results page real estate, giving you a better shot at capturing a click, but perhaps there’s a gain in brand perception and credibility as well.

Conversion: Combine SEO + PPC for Best Results

Conversion Rates increase for terms where you have both an organic and paid result. Perhaps having a presence in both improves your credibility and/or encourages a repeat visit?

True, this study isn’t directly addressing branded keywords, but it does address the search results landscape. Having a PPC ad and an organic result on the same page improves performance. My assertion is that this applies to branded keywords just like it would any other keyword in your campaign. In our view – you HAVE to include brand keywords in your PPC campaign as a baseline. You can always test the impact of not having brand keywords, but if my job is to make the PPC campaign perform – I’m going to hedge my bets and include branded keywords in my PPC campaign.

3. Branded PPC Supports the Conversion Funnel

If your campaign is firing on all cylinders then PPC will be reaching users all along the conversion path with the right message at the right time. This includes the final stage of  the funnel where conversion/purchase/vendor selection happens. Sometimes people just want directions or a phone number. Why not use a PPC ad and take the opportunity to make that next step a little easier? That makes your brand look a little more helpful.

4. Defend Your Turf

Look at all the competition trying to get a click for this "iPad" brand search.

Competitors bidding on your brand terms can push your organic listing way down, giving them the click instead of you.

5. Control the Message and the Link

6. Quality Score

Conclusion

So there you have it, our thoughts on the role that brand keywords play in your PPC campaign. What did I miss? What did I get wrong? What are your experiences with branded PPC? Leave a comment.

More Resources – Don’t Just Take Our Word For It

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SEOmoz: Why Every Marketer Now Needs a Google+ Strategy

• Rank Fishkin shares why he thinks Google is forcing businesses to use Google+.
• His reasons why you need to have Google+:
  1. Google+ in Search Results
  2. Personalization and Social Results
  3. Increase Google+ Adoption
  4. Richness of snippets / markup
  5. Web Spam and Quality Signals
  6. Biasing to social / Google+ in Search
• Make sure you view the video on their website for all the details.
• Also, stay tuned for insights from our very own, Ben Lloyd, later this week.

Embedded Tweets

• Twitter announces the ability to embed tweets on third-party websites.
• While the embed link shown in their blog post doesn’t seem to be in the current version of Twitter, the code they show still creates the intended results with some minor tweaks.

Now you can easily embed Tweets and better customize the Tweet & Follow Buttons. https://dev.twitter.com/blog/tweets-and-buttons ^TS

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) December 8, 2011

5 Ways to Make Your Content Shareable

• Raven Tools has come out with a lot of great stuff lately, like their free Google Analytics Configuration Tool.
• In this blog post, they include the following ways to make content shareable:
  • Have the Right Stuff
  • Write a Great Headline
  • Talk About What They’re Already Talking About
  • … And Stop Talking About Yourself
  • Create Conversation on Your Blog
• If that isn’t reason enough to take a look at the blog, they even include NKOTB’s “Right Stuff” music video. Wow! That brings me back.

How to Create a Social Media Editorial Calendar

• This post from Search Engine Watch shares some benefits of having a Social Media Editorial Calendar, tools to create them, and the following tips:
  • Have goals
  • Break your calendar out for frequency and timing
  • Have themes for your posts
  • Share the calendar with the rest of the team
  • Take inventory of social trends
  • Social mobile messaging
  • Connect your social and print campaigns

Do you “like” something that I missed? Add it to the comments below. Check out more of my likes / +1′s on my Google+ Profile

Amplify Interactive offers Social Media Marketing services for small to medium sized businesses. Contact us today to chat about your Social Media Marketing strategy.