Google Adwords has Finally Enhanced Search Query Performance Reports
May 19th, 2009
Today, I received an email notification from Google Adwords of their new expansion on Search Query Performance report. I cannot express how happy I am to hear that Google has finally decided to add on this feature! For those of you who have never ran this report before, I’d like to share some tips with you to improve your CPA (and cut unnecessary spending) right away.
The Search Query Performance Report is one of my favorite features in Google AdWords. It is a report type that shows performance data on search queries that a user typed into Google which triggered your ad and received clicks. What’s cool about it is that the report shows the keyword match type the user has typed in, and other reporting metrics like Impressions, Clicks, CTR, Conversions, CPA, and etc. Now having said that, you can make use of this report to extract new keywords you may want to add, determine new keyword matching options, and the best of all, to negative match any keywords that is irrelevant to the product or service you sell.
The previous release of the Search Query Performance report has a line called “other unique queries”, which are unknown keywords lumped together that Google claims “generated very low volume traffic”. I’ve been a little perplexed by this, because often times you see more than 100 other unique queries with fairly high cost.
THE GOOD NEWS.
Starting today, the Search Query Performance report will show all queries, including “other unique queries”! I am very excited of this update, and I strongly encourage you to run a Search Query Performance report to check out how powerful and useful this can be to you!
As for Yahoo!, although you cannot run the search query report out of their YSM! interface, you can still call your rep to request for one.
Posted in Search Marketing by Felix Chang | | 0 Comments
Opportunities in the Hispanic Search Market
April 27th, 2009
Almost every day a new study is released about the potentials of the growing population and purchasing power of Hispanics. According to comScore, Inc. the Hispanic online population reached 20.3 million visitors in February 2009, that’s about 11% of the total U.S. online market! The 20.3 million online Hispanics today use the Internet to communicate with friends and relatives, and they go online to conduct research most often looking for information and coupons of the products and services they intend to purchase.
I can see how the advertisers might be hesitant towards targeting Hispanic market, due to the lack of foreign language skills, and consumer behavior. According to Google research more than 50% Hispanics in the U.S. prefer English and only 15 to 20% prefer Spanish. Data shows most Hispanics in the U.S. are actually comfortable with English. We should be looking at the bigger picture: Hispanics doing search in both English and Spanish.
Compare to the rest of the U.S. population, Hispanics have more purchasing power because they tend to have less credit card debt, loans, and mortgages. Downturn economy has the least effect to the Hispanics and can actually open doors to new marketing opportunities.
To start building a campaign targeting the Hispanic market:
Search
- Create 2 campaigns segmented by different browser settings - (English vs. Spanish)
- Focus on keyword themes around products that you are targeting
- Go Bilingual (if you are comfortable doing this)
*Create ads in English, Spanish, and Spanglish
Content
Hispanics tend to spend a lot of time on content network such as Youtube, help pages, sports and entertainment, and parenting forums.
- Target these sites since they are popular within the Hispanic community
*Focus on broad keyword themes to get more traffic and generally 25 keywords or less in each ad group - Build ads with English, Spanish and Spanglish
- Find users through contextual and placement targeted campaigns. Negative match any sites that’s not performing well
- Consider promoting your Brand through display ads
Currently there is still little search competition on Spanish keywords. So there’s definitely a competitive advantage right there to enter the market now and take advantage of the search competition. Consider to write some Spanish ad is also advantageous since there is currently low Spanish ad competition.
Posted in Search Marketing by Felix Chang | | 0 Comments
Happy Belated Birthday To Us
February 27th, 2009
NETexponent was started in January of 2001 by myself and Chris Kramer which means we just turned 8 years old!
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our work that we forget to stop and celebrate our wins. Today we are taking a short break and celebrating as a team with a company lunch. Nothing extravagant (gotta watch that budget) but a good chance to sit down with our NETexponent family and celebrate.
It is also a good time to thank all those who have helped us over the years. We have had the pleasure of working with amazing clients, partners, and staff. Chris and I would like to offer our deepest thanks to each and every one of you.
“Thank You All”
* I will be uploading some old photos to our Facebook Fan Page so stop by and check em out for a chuckle.
Posted in Meet Us, NETexponent Fun by Peter Figueredo | | 1 Comments
Affiliate Tax Goes Coast To Coast
February 26th, 2009
It looks like California may be adopting a tax on affiliate sales similar to the one approved in New York. California tax law can still be fought so if you work in affiliate marketing and live in California please contact your congressman/congresswoman immediately.
Unless these laws can be stopped it is only a matter of time before all states enact similar taxes. Millions of dollars in additional state revenue (California is hoping for $55million) is way too tempting not to try.
Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Amazon Kindle 2 - First Impressions
February 25th, 2009
What does the Amazon Kindle 2 have to do with search and affiliate marketing you might ask? Well I will tell you…
A. NETexponent manages paid search and affiliate marketing programs for leading companies in the audio book and ebook markets. Kindle is an ebook reader and can play audio books. I strongly believe that we cannot effectively market our clients products and services unless we fully understand their market. Kindle has small market share but plenty of buzz and opportunity for fast growth.
B. Kindle has Wispernet, Amazons 3G wireless network that allows Kindle users to connect to Amazon anywhere they go. This technology is a new way for users to shop and the fact that Amazon provides it for free is very interesting. Could this be used for email? web browsing? general e-commerce?
C. Kindle users can read books, blogs, newspapers, and listen to audio books. Ads are stripped out of blogs and newspapers but they could come back and i wanted to see what the experience was like.
D. Finally, I just plain love gadgets and new tech
So…Here are my first impressions
Pre-Kindle 2
I did not own a Kindle 1 so I am not sure how Amazon handled the launch of that product. The first thing Amazon did really well was send an email to me a few days before my Kindle shipped welcoming me to the Kindle family and telling me to get ready for my new Kindle’s arrival by building my library at Amazon.com. It was a nice email, not salesy.
Arrival
My Kindle 2 shipped early and arrived via 2-day shipping when I only ordered via regular 5-day. All in all I got my Kindle 8 days early! Great management of expectations here. Amazon clearly under promised and over delivered. (this is a trick well known to Dell and Zappos customers)
My First Time
The Kindle came pre-charged so I didnt need to wait a while to charge it. (nothing worse than getting a new toy and having to wait to use it) There is NO set-up necessary. Amazon pre-programmed my Kindle with the email and one click account settings associated with the account I used to make the purchase originally. Brilliant! The Wispernet (wireless 3G) service was already enabled and connected out of the box. Pre-loaded on the Kindle was instructions (no need to waste paper on these) and a nice welcome note from belly laughing Bezos
The screen resolution is very clear and it reminded me of an old black and white palm pilot. Nothing sexy about the resolution but it is easy on the eyes so reading long hours would not be an issue. The Kindle itself is really small…it is actually THINNER THAN MY IPHONE. The dimensions are about 1.75 IPhones long and 1.2 IPhones wide.
I quickly figured out how to download a book and bought an issue of The Financial Times, another great NETexponent client. (we love supporting our clients) The purchase only took a few seconds and the download only a few more. I had my first Kindle purchase all set in less than a minute. This speaks volumes about the Wispernet speed. (which I could easily see being used for reading text email)
Speaking volumes is a great transition to another functionality the text to speech option on Kindle, where the device will convert any text into spoken word. You can listen via the internal speaker or through headphones. Our audio book client team was especially interested in this function. I was surprised how good it sounded. It sounded no worse than any GPS device on the market and certainly way better than the Speak-And-Spell voice I imagined.
I was disappointed because I could not find any way to download audio books and play them on the Kindle. I know it is possible but I could not figure out how to do it on my first attempts. If anyone knows how to do this please tell me via comments.
Posted in NETexponent Clients, Online Marketing, Research by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Search Engine Strategies NYC Features NETexponent
February 23rd, 2009
I am happy to announce that NETexponent CEO, Peter Figueredo, has just been asked to join an SES panel at the upcoming NYC show.
So if you are attending SES NYC feel free to stop by and enjoy his panel (described below) on Wednesday March 25th 4 - 5pm
Dealing With Affiliates: A Roadmap to Success
Join this panel for a no-holds-barred discussion where performance marketing’s top contenders square off. As SEM evolves, marketers find themselves competing head-on with affiliates. Marketers want more leads/sales, increased affiliate-generated leads/sales, and less cannibalization of search campaigns. How can this be achieved in a world filled with increasingly hostile rhetoric on both sides? Join a panel of experts as they break silence on taboo issues and work through the finer points. You’ll walk away with fresh, new perspective and the ability to collaborate profitably.
Moderator:
Jeffrey Rohrs, VP, Marketing, ExactTarget
Speakers:
Kristopher Jones, President & CEO, Pepperjam
Jeff Ferguson, Director of Online Marketing, Napster
Lori Weiman, CEO, The Search Monitor
Peter Figueredo, CEO, NETexponent
Posted in Events, Meet Us, Search Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 1 Comments
Follow Me If You Dare
February 13th, 2009
Admittedly, NETexponent was a little late to the game using Twitter. With everything we have been working on in 2008 we just did not have the time. However, after launching a personal twitter account at https://twitter.com/figueredo I now have some good learning and a much better understanding of how NETexponent friends and family can benefit from a company twitter stream. I made the time in 2009 and we quietly launched a company twitter account recently. You can follow us on twitter by visiting https://twitter.com/netexponent.
This blog will continue to be your main source for information related to NETexponent, our clients, and issues concerning the performance marketing industry. We will use twitter to provide quick updates on relevant topics and some of those topics will be discussed in more detail on this blog. So please continue to read this blog but also feel free to follow us on twitter.
Posted in Meet Us, Social Media by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Total Gym Direct Picks NETexponent Affiliate Management
February 4th, 2009
What do Chuck Norris, Christie Brinkley, and Wesley Snipes all have in common with NETexponent? We all love the Total Gym. I am proud to welcome Total Gym Direct to the NETexponent family. We were originally chosen to provide an affiliate program assessment for Total Gym Direct. This $999 service allows us to provide advertisers with an in depth review of their affiliate program in the areas of recruitment, affiliate mix, competitive analysis, creative, and much more. After we presented the results of this project and our recommendations for moving forward the folks at Total Gym Direct decided they wanted to use our outsourced program management services and implement them ASAP. Our team is very excited to be working with such a great product.
Here are some program details:
- Commission rates start at 10%
- 45 return days
- Unlimited action occurrences
PEAK SEASON IS NOW
JOIN NOW or CONTACT US to see if you qualify for preferred commission rates
Just like Chuck, Christie, and Wesley - NETexponent does not only promote Total Gym Direct but we also use it. We have a Total Gym Direct in our office and I just got one at home. So feel free to ask us about using the product and we can tell you about all the great features.
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, NETexponent Clients by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Birth Of A New Super Affiliate
February 4th, 2009
I recently announced the birth of a new site that has the potential to quickly become a super affiliate. This post is not designed to regurgitate my ReveNews blog but to personalize it for NETexponent clients. I am happy to announce that all NETexponent affiliate clients are being promoted on the new site offers.com. This is no small feat since the site just launched. Based on their relationship with NETexponent, the developers gave us the courtesy of previewing the site before it went live and including our clients at launch. (Chris Kramer even helped out by identifying a minor bug on the site.)
We talk a lot about leveraging our agency relationships for clients and I thought this was a great example of how that comes to life. Good luck to the friendly folks at Vertive; we hope Offers.com takes off.
Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
What Role Will Display Advertising Play In Your 2009 Marketing Plan?
November 24th, 2008
Many companies are slashing their marketing budgets and evaluating how marketing dollars are spent due 
to the tough economic times. Slashing budgets is a clear sign that “Lean and Mean” is the current theme for many businesses. On average most research suggests that (while growing) online advertising still only represents less than 10% of where marketing dollars are spent. Yet even online advertising budgets are getting scrutinized.
For advertisers who wish to get the best ROI (Return On Investment) for their online marketing dollar the focus tends to shift to display advertising and whether or not they should keep spending in that category. We all know that display advertising (eg banner ads on websites bought on CPM or cost per thousand impressions) is typically the hardest online advertising initiative to measure. Comparatively, CPA (cost per acquisition) campaigns can be directly tied to ROI.
Therefore, when under pressure to justify every marketing dollar spent the inclination is to slash display advertising budgets and increase more accountable marketing channels such as affiliate marketing. At the surface this seems to make sense. However, if you take a holistic approach to looking at this situation you may find that display advertising plays an important role.
At NETexponent we have seen how display advertising can boost other online marketing efforts such as paid search and affiliate programs. We evaluate all marketing channels in order to get a holistic view of our clients’ online marketing effort. This outlook has shown us time and time again that spikes and dips in performance driven marketing channels such as search and affiliate can sometimes be directly related to display advertising efforts. When significant display advertising campaigns are running for clients we usually see a boost in traffic and conversions in other online marketing channels. Therefore, display advertising can play an important role even in ROI focused advertising efforts.
Measuring the impact of display advertising on other media channels and choosing the right allocation of marketing dollars is where the tricky part comes in to play. I am not advocating that all advertisers go out and boost display ad spending because it may not have the impact they want. It is true that even boosts in performance related to display could come at a price that is too high for advertisers. My main point is that companies should evaluate the impact display advertising has on other online campaigns and use that data to determine exactly how much spend to allocate to this channel in order to maximize online marketing ROI.
Posted in Display Advertising, Meet Us, NETexponent Clients, Online Marketing, Research by Peter Figueredo | | 3 Comments
