Social Less Than Super

It is the Monday after the Super Bowl. One city is thrilled, one city is miserable and a bunch of cities in between had no emotional stake in it whatsoever unless you consider the office pool to be such an investment. On Super Bowl Sunday, the main attraction is the game itself but it is also that special day when advertisers pull out all the stops to score a brand awareness touchdown. Last night, those stops included social media. Audi sought to drive results, pun very much intended, by incorporating a Twitter hashtag at the end of its minute-long commercial. YouTube and Facebook continued their practice of having users vote for their favorite ads. Call it the Super Engagement Bowl! But now it's time for some Monday Morning Quarterbacking courtesy of a new study from ForeSee Results.

The report found that only 5% of people visiting retail sites were directed there by social networks. Instead, search and email marketing initiatives were more likely to drive relevant user traffic to these sites. This illustrates a point this blog has made on several occasions. Social media is only as good as the performance marketing expertise behind it. A pretty Facebook wall, a fun Twitter feed or a video-filled You Tube account may make you think you are an active social media maven but these alone will do nothing for your bottom line. Success for a social media campaign should not be reaction-based. Success must be results-based.

It's too early to tell if Audi will profit from its hashtag ad or if the winning Facebook and YouTube spots will realize a significant sales boost. In the meantime, here's a little analogy marketers should keep top of mind. In every football game, a coach will make a call that will have fans cheering wildly or pulling their hair out. But if the play call manages to produce the desired result, a score or better still a win, it achieved the ultimate goal. To quote Lombardi - the coach and perhaps Tom Brady's favorite play - 'Winning isn't everything - it's the only thing.' When only 5% of Internet users are effectively leveraging social media, winning seems further away than many of us would care to admit.

PPC is not for Miss Cleo

The development of forward thinking proprietary technology that can predict major Pay-Per-Click (PPC) outcomes such as conversions, revenue, and ROI is a current industry trend. Predictive optimization is one such advancement; a bid management tool used primarily at the keyword level. It establishes optimal bids for advertisers by leveraging historical and overall performance data.  If properly implemented, predictive optimization could allow those in paid search to focus more on driving revenue rather than costly bidding and monotonous keyword practices.

Predictive optimization involves analyzing complex outcome and predictor variables to come up with a best fit line. The line illustrates, with the least amount of possible error, the relationship between your predictor and outcome variables. In addition to the regression line, the process also produces massive migraines affecting laymen and search professionals alike. Feeling one coming on? Go pop an Advil. Back? Great. OK, simply speaking, predictive optimization helps you determine your ultimate ROI, cost-per-click and click-through rate.

For predictive optimization to truly be effective, it must adhere to a cycle of continuous improvement – ongoing testing, analyzing and evaluating. This is where many agencies cease and desist with their predictive program. That’s a problem because the power of predictive optimization is in the data, which changes rapidly in the short-term and the long-term. If an agency does not disclose the statistical significance of their models, how can folks be expected to trust their predictions? Accepting the results of a linear regression without at least knowing the significance of the model is like accepting a loan without knowing the interest rate. The results could be devastating.

Predictive optimization can be a useful, even revolutionary proprietary tool – if utilized correctly. It is the responsibility of performance marketers to thoroughly investigate such predictions before we implement them into PPC campaigns.

Are You Targeting a Loss?

As digital marketers embark on a new year of monetizing the social space to drive results for advertisers and clients, it is more important than ever to keep your targeting practices on course. If 2010 was about the unprecedented power of Facebook, 2011 looks to be about leveraging all things local. But in an increasingly fragmented online market, local may not always include your neck of the woods. For instance, Groupon subscribers living in Brooklyn also receive offers for the other four New York boroughs. Given the couponing site’s high level of success, this may not seem like that big of a deal especially in a major metropolitan city. However, online performance marketers incorporating such subscription-based offers into their client campaigns rely on optimized, precise audience targeting to maximize ROI. They need customers to drive the deal. And if the customers can’t be found, well, fill in the blanks.

I was recently emailed a Groupon offer for a Staten Island lounge – get $40 worth of drinks and eats for $20. That would be appealing if I lived on Staten Island. By emailing me this promotion, Groupon did the lounge a major disservice. I’m one less person making a commitment to patronize this establishment. That’s not costing me anything but for the lounge, which is already losing 50% of its potential profitability by leveraging Groupon, my lack of interest is a big blow.

Performance marketers should stress the importance of precise localized targeting with new and existing clients.  There is no question that Groupon has been and should continue to be successful. Still, the Staten Island lounge would have been wise to utilize performance-based experts familiar with maximizing social and local reach. After all, it’s about driving results for your business model and not for one healthy enough to reject Google.

The Science behind SEO

Allow me to take a trip down search memory lane. With the advancements in social and mobile mediums, it may be hard to remember a time when algorithms were the star of the SEO show. In fact, the science of SEO is what enables marketers to deliver high performing campaigns. This is worth remembering, if only for a Monday morning blog.

For the majority of SEO experts, driving qualified, relevant search results for high page rankings and conversion rates is the pinnacle of success. The search algorithms used to calculate SEO rankings are continuously evolving as search engines try to take advantage of proprietary technology. For instance, Google used the algorithm PageRank to kick start its monumental industry rise. But in keeping with the need to improve, search marketers understand that it was the algorithm Hilltop that helped Google peak.

Establishing link authority was proving to be too difficult for PageRank. There wasn’t a criterion in place for determining link authority, which enabled links from irrelevant sources to rank high. The Hilltop algorithm is similar to Google PageRank in that the amount and quality of inbound links constitutes the ranking. But unlike PageRank, Hilltop only considers "expert" sources from authority sites when evaluating incoming links.

Since SEO programs rely on relevancy for high performance, Hilltop was and continues to be an important member of the Google algorithm family. It is a testament to its functionality and utility that Hilltop, along with Google’s many search algorithms, remain significant SEO metrics.

If Your Business is Going Social, Remember to Socialize Your Staff

It’s no secret that small and large businesses alike are determined to incorporate social media into their 2011 growth strategies. Yes, Facebook will lead the way but location-based network Foursquare gained steam in 2010. The premise of Foursquare is that Internet users check-in - either at home, work or via a mobile device - to retail shops, movies and restaurants for present and future discounts. Businesses benefit by driving visits to their websites and physical locations. Social media campaigns generate buzz among potential customers. But what about creating buzz among employees?

My friends and I recently hung out at a lounge, one that was offering a Foursquare promotion involving patrons getting free chocolate covered strawberries. Free is good. When our server approached our table, we informed her of the promotion.

“What’s Foursquare? I never heard of it.” The server’s words blew my mind. Clearly confused, she turned to her manager, who confirmed the promotion. Moments later, the pro bono fruit arrived.

I suppose this could be considered a check-in success story. The people prevailed. Yay democracy! And yet, this could have been a major fail for the bar. In the case of the strawberries, the Foursquare offer undoubtedly helped solidify an already loyal client base. But if we were new to the lounge, the server’s naiveté might have seemed less endearing and more incompetent. In order for these types of online to offline social media campaigns to be successful, employees of these businesses must be kept in the know. That goes for any corporate model.

Leveraging social media can drive results for business. However, it can also drive prospective customers away if they sense your internal structure could use some social ripening.

Don’t Settle for the Proverbial End of the Year Top 10 List

It is a rite of passage in every facet of life, in every genre of business, in every bit of personal reflection and in every David Letterman episode. As the year comes to a close, clichéd top ten lists abound. In performance marketing, the following top ten lists are most prevalent:
The Top Ten Email Marketing Campaigns
The Top Ten Search Initiatives
The Top Ten Affiliate Programs
The Top Ten Moments in Social Media
Yada Yada. Yawn.
Top Ten lists do have a way of wrapping up the year into a tidy bow of performance. But online performance marketing is not that simplistic. A performance campaign, regardless of the channel, should never be wrapped up. It must be continuously improved upon, optimized and tracked. In this way, the campaign never completely comes to an end. There should always be an improvement strategy in place.
This calls for something akin to an Anti-Top Ten List. Not just for the end of this year but for years to come.
The Top Ten List of Performance Marketing Dont's
1 - Don't settle for your current conversion rates. Rely on performance expertise to conduct continual testing and drive better results
2 - Don't sit back and rely on the status quo. Revise and optimize your content to increase relevant traffic
3 - Don't join the first affiliate network you find. Connect with a robust, trustworthy network to successfully expand your reach
4 - Don't link for the sake of linking. Implement a sound link building strategy to improve popularity and authority
5 - Don't begin an email marketing campaign without proper targeting. Hit your target audience and drive conversions-to-sale
6 - Don't launch dynamic banner ads without a plan. Get the data needed to find the audience that will click and convert
7 - Don't create a Facebook page and call yourself a social media expert. Leverage knowledgeable social media professionals to drive traffic to your site and engage actionable consumers
8 - Don't lose sight of the profit potential of the Internet. Publishers must utilize digital marketing expertise to properly monetize their email lists, data acquisition campaigns, affiliate networks and display markets
9 - Don't neglect your lead database. Incorporate lead management strategies to maximize the effectiveness of your existing customer list and to better oversee your customer procurement approach
10 - Don't forget online performance marketing is about driving results. Make sure clients understand what they have to gain from incorporating expert digital marketing solutions into their campaigns
So as you pop your champagne corks and turn the calendar to 2011, keep this list top of mind. It will likely help you maximize your online reach, conversions and ROI in the present and future.

The Tangled Web of Net Neutrality

In today's political climate, it's not often that both sides of the congressional aisle spew their vitriol at one issue. And then this Net Neutrality thing took center stage last Tuesday.

"Net Neutrality" is both vague and intriguing. People love the Net. It has been a highly influential, innovative and inventive communication and profit generating tool for over twenty years. People like, in theory, neutrality. It suggests impartiality; a level playing field for consumers and corporations. Put the two terms together and you get, again theoretically, an "everybody wins", open yet protected Internet.

That's what makes Tuesday's Pro-Net Neutrality ruling so disconcerting. It doesn't go far enough in protecting the rights of users from Internet and mobile giants like Time Warner and AT&T. Transparency regulations are blurred. Content blocking rules differ along fixed, wireless and mobile lines. But the most striking faux pas of this ruling is the potential to implement a paid prioritization system, which would enable broadband providers to charge consumers in order to access certain programs and applications. And though the FCC on Wednesday came out strongly against paid priority citing language in the ruling to prevent such a measure, only time will tell if loopholes in the ruling will free communications corporations up.

The same can be said about the FCC's Net Neutrality regulations as a whole. With plenty of fist slamming being done on both sides, it's likely we haven't heard the last of this. Stay logged in.