Online Marketing: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

 

I love old Clint Eastwood western movies.  They were always on TV when I was growing up and I would instantly get sucked into a ~3 hour movie, along with all those commercials.  Hey, I figure there were worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I've probably watched The Good, The Bad and The Ugly about 10 times by now.  To be honest I can't always tell which one of Clint's movies I'm watching until they reintroduce it after a commercial.  They all include gunfights, signature one liners from Clint, and some timely, precision tobacco spitting.  My kind of movie. :)

Even if you haven't watched the movie, you can probably guess there's a good guy, a bad guy, and an ugly guy.  I'll spare you the details and jump right into how this relates to online marketing.  In my experience, online marketing plays all 3 of those roles: Good, Bad, and Ugly.

 

 

The Good

 

The good is usually what draws businesses to online marketing in the first place: It's affordable.  In some cases, it's downright free.  For example, any business looking for local customers can set up and optimize a Google+ Local page and within about a month get free exposure in Google's local business results.  No upfront fees.  No ongoing fees.  No fancy software to learn.  Just free exposure when local customers are searching for you.  Hard to beat free when it comes to driving new business!

Even advertising is usually more affordable online versus offline.  With Google AdWords you only pay per click so there is no big upfront investment like there is with TV, print or radio ads.

Of course, affordability isn't the only reason online marketing is good, but I think that gets the point across just fine.  Now let's look at the bad...

The Bad

The bad news is that online marketing is always changing!  Just when you think you've mastered search engine optimization (SEO), Google will go and change their algorithm.  Or just when you've built up a hefty Facebook audience, Zuckerberg decides to tweak their EdgeRank algorithm so you have to pay to get your posts in front of your prospects and customers.

Scroll through this list of Google algorithm changes to see just how frequently the search engine landscape changes.  Trust me, it's nearly impossible to keep up, and I do this for a living.  There's just no way a business owner can stay on top of all the trends and best practices without help.

And Google is just the tip of the iceberg... Have you looked at all the options available with online marketing?  Talk about overwhelming.  There's SEO, local SEO, search advertising, display advertising, Facebook advertising, email marketing, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, press release services, website conversion optimization, tracking and website analytics.  I could go on and on but you get the point.

Now, let's turn to the ugly side of online marketing...

The Ugly

First, there's the glut of information available.  There are books, blogs, articles, videos, and podcasts published online daily.  Some of it is sound advice.  Some of it is applicable for certain types of businesses.  And some of it outdated, or simply inaccurate.  Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible for a business owner to know who or what to pay attention to, which leads to poor marketing decisions.

Second, there are many low quality (and even unethical in my opinion) online marketing providers.  For example, I've talked to many business owners who paid and lost thousands to an SEO company that guaranteed #1 rankings.   My spam folder is full of these prospecting emails so I know how tempting it can be for businesses.  However, the reality is that no one can guarantee #1 rankings. As soon as you see or hear that phrase, run away, hang up, or click delete. That's a red flag that you're not dealing with a reputable company.

AdWords Quality Score: Love it or Hate it?

 

Use AdWords Quality Score to Improve All of Your Marketing Channels 


I receive a lot of questions and complaints about the infamous Google AdWords Quality Score.  Even if you've never advertised in AdWords, chances are pretty good that you've heard of the quality score.

It's essentially Google's measure of the quality of your ad campaign on a scale from 1 - 10.  This little score can have a huge impact because Google uses it to determine where your ads will rank versus your competitors, and how much you'll end up paying for those ads.  A low quality score means your ad will be be ranked lower and you'll pay more than your competitors.  A high quality score means your ad will be ranked higher and you'll pay less.

There's a lot of confusion and frustration surrounding the Quality Score and I don't talk to many people who like it very much.  But I actually love it.

So in this article I'm going to go against the grain.  I hope by the end I'll convince you that Google's Quality Score is really your best friend, and you should use the Quality Score best practices to set up and optimize any marketing channel.

Every Marketing Channel Has a Quality Score

If you think about it, every marketing channel has a quality score.  It's just not visible in your reports and it's not used in the ad ranking algorithm like in Google AdWords.  But it's still there and it affects your ad performance just the same.

For example, what happens if you write generic ads that don't resonate with your prospects?  Well you won't get too much traffic, which means you won't get too many sales, which means you won't be able to afford to reinvest as much in the ad campaign, which means your ads will lose out to your competitors.  In other words, low quality ads inevitably lead to lower ad rank because you won't be generating as many sales as your competitors.

Let's look at one more example.  Now let's say you have a compelling ad that tons of prospects are clicking on, but your website is a bit disorganized and hard to navigate.   Again, you're not going to generate many sales, which means you won't be able to reinvest in the ad campaign, which means your competitors will eventually out-bid you.  Same result as before with the poorly written ads.

So even though other channels do not have a formal quality score, the results will tend to be the same. If you're not following best practices, then you'll eventually lose out to your competitors.

3 Quality Score Best Practices to Improve All of Your Marketing

The Google AdWords Quality Score can be broken down into 3 key areas:

1. Ad Relevance
2. Ad click through rate
3. Landing page experience

And you can use each of these best practices for ALL of your marketing channels (not just Google AdWords).

1. Ad Relevance

This is basic marketing 101, which is to match your message to the market.  In an AdWords search campaign, that means to use the keyword you're targeting in the ad copy.  If you're advertising on the keyword "couples massage" then your ad should probably mention "couples massage" so that you're matching the market. Pretty simple right?

Now take a look at some of your other marketing campaigns like SEO, email, and social media.  What is your Ad Relevance score?  Is your message hitting the market's need?

2. Ad Click Through Rate

The ad click through rate, or CTR, is the measure of how many times your ad is clicked compared to how many times your prospects saw the ad.  For example, if your ad was displayed 100 times and 2 people clicked on it, then you would have a 2% CTR.

As you can see, CTR is simply a measure of how well your ad copy and offer resonates with your prospects.  A low CTR tells you your prospects do not like your ad copy and offer.  Don't take it personally and don't throw in the towel. To be successful you're going to have to test a lot of different ads and offers in order to find the best combinations.  Use CTR as one of your measuring sticks to improve your campaign performance.

3. Landing Page Experience

Finally, one of the most important elements of a successful marketing campaign is congruence.  By that I mean a congruent message from the ad copy to the landing page, all the way through to the sale.  More recently, this also means a congruent message across devices like tablets, mobile devices, and computers. If you do not have a congruent message, then your prospects will likely jump out of the sales path before making a purchase.

The other two factors in your landing page quality score are transparency and easy navigation.  These should really go without saying.  Every business needs to be as transparent as possible online. Everyone (including myself) is hesitant to make online purchases for fear of getting ripped off.  So anything you can do to ease that fear, the better.  And if you don't make it easy for prospects to navigate your website, then how do you expect them to contact you or complete a purchase?

So did I convince you that the Google AdWords Quality Score is really your best friend to improve all of your marketing?

How Much Does SEO Cost? (4 Major Factors)

Ever wonder why search engine optimization (SEO) prices can range from hundreds of dollars to several thousand dollars per month? The quality of the service is certainly a factor, but SEO fees also depend greatly on the type of business you’re in.
 
In this article, I’ll break down SEO pricing into the 4 major factors so you can see where your business falls on the spectrum of fees.
 

1. Local vs. National SEO

As you can probably guess, it tends to be easier to rank in Google for local searches than to rank nationally or even globally.  Therefore, SEO services are cheaper for businesses focused on a local market.
 
For many local searches, Google now displays Google+ Local business listings, along with a map in the upper right corner of the search results.  So instead of trying to get your business website to rank in Google, you need to focus on your Google+ Local business listing.  This is called “Local SEO” and it requires different tactics than traditional SEO.
 
Not only is local SEO cheaper, but you also tend to get faster results compared to traditional SEO.  For these reasons, I recommend most businesses start investing in local SEO first.
 
In our experience providing these services, and from discussions with many other SEO providers, we’ve found that most local SEO services range from $500 to $1,000 per month, and most national SEO services start at around $2,000 per month and go up from there, based on some of the factors listed below.
 

2. Number of Products/Services

The next factor is the number of products or services you want to target with SEO.  If you have 50 different products and you want them all to be #1 when prospects are searching in Google, then you need to optimize all 50 product webpages.  Clearly, that requires more work than optimizing just one product or service.
 
Some SEO companies’ fees are based on the number of keywords, which is essentially the same as charging by the number of products or services you want to promote.  So if you’re on a tight budget, it’s important to focus on the best SEO opportunities based on keyword search volume, SEO competition, and the profit margin of your product or service.
 

3. Strength of Competition

The third factor is the strength of your competition.  I’m not talking about your direct competitors that usually pop into your head.  I’m talking about SEO competitors who are already ranking in Google for the keywords you want to target.
 
We recently worked with a client that literally had no competition in an entire state.  So when we asked about competitors for SEO, they laughed.  In their mind, they had no competitors.  However, when we searched for the keywords they wanted to rank for, then sure enough, they DID have competitors. There were plenty of other websites ranking above them in the search results.
 
With SEO, you always have competitors and they may not even be in the same industry as you.  The stronger the competition, the more work (i.e. higher fees) it’s going to take to overtake them in the search results.
 

4. Existing Google Penalties

Another factor is whether or not your website has existing Google penalties.  A lot of businesses were hit hard by Google updates like Panda, Penguin, or the dreaded “unnatural link penalty.”  Unfortunately, I’ve talked to several business owners who have not yet fixed the penalties because of the fees involved.
 
If you have an existing penalty, then I recommend you first focus on fixing the root cause.  Until the penalty is removed, SEO is going to be like fighting with one or two arms tied behind your back.
 

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a lot of factors that determine search engine optimization prices. And one additional factor is whether you’re investing in a one-time SEO project (such as an audit or on-page SEO clean-up), or whether you’re investing in on-going SEO (including content development and link-building).
 
The first step is always an audit to assess the situation, understand the business goals, and lay out a plan of attack.  Then based on the 4 factors above, the exact SEO fee can be determined.