Speakers:
* Jennifer Doss, E-Commerce Marketing Manager, Lids.com
* Jamie Smith, CEO, Engine Ready
* James Beriker, President, Efficient Frontier
* Chris Leggatt, Senior Account Executive, Moniker


Jennifer Doss

Lids.com is real-time they sell hats from colleges and other sports teams.

Goals
* Triple monthly revenue at max CPA of $7
* Boost sites sear visibility on keyword hats
* Double revenue #’s from natural search

Challenges
* Over 10,00 pages and 20,000 sku’s
* Pages not optimized for indexing
* Not enough copy
* Keywords not properly targeted
* Content not targeting visitors
* No sitemap

Paid Tactics
* Manual management replaced
* Expand participation in other search programs
* Optimized paid search ad copy
* Increased keywords from 500 to 13,000 terms
* Revised monthly PPC budget (spent more in Nov & Dec based on season. About 30% of sales done that time of year)

Organic Tactics
* Dynamically generated optimization tags (code auto populated meta tags)
* Blog strategy targeting specific keyword phrases (sports and specific teams)
* Dynamic Google Sitemap file

Paid Campaign Results
* CPA decreased by 50%
* Monthly conversion increased 1,294%
* Monthly revenue increased 1,244%

Organic Campaign Results
* Achieved #1 ranking in Google
* and two others that I wasn’t fast enough to catch J

Jamie Smith

3c’s for success
* Conversion drivers (credibility security value)
* Conversion inspiration
* Nearly Customers – 1st Tier Closest to converting. Address these customers to have an immediate impact
* Non Customers – Came to site and didn’t add item to cart etc..
* New Customers

The 3 C’s for SEM Success
Develop a VISIBILITY strategy based on your target market, goals and objectives
* Creative
* Continuity
* Conversion

Visibility (Broadest View) In PPC Visibility=Impressions

How do you measure your success?
* Creative - Highest possible CTR
* Continuity - Lowest possible bounce rate
* Conversion - Maximum possible ROAS

If over 20% call to order…. Call Analytics?

Watch Path Analysis

* Navigation, Usability and Site Design
* Robust Site Search
* Complete Shipping

Chris Leggatt

What makes a good domain?
* Natural generic brand
* Easy to remember
* Clear, concise and descriptive
* Industry segment
* Visually pleasing
* Existing type in traffic

70% of internet users use direct navigation up 53% from 4 years ago
Direct navigation currently on track to surpass $1.2B this year
Direct navigation comprises 8-10% of us and us
More than 43% direct navigation traffic is willing to purchase product

Think about generic domain names being an expenditure. Are there other domains that can accomplish same results. Are there related domains whose acquisition would increase current traffic? How much am I spending for search adv. Vs how much would it cost to just buy the source?

On the other hand
Ex of Asthma.com
It’s an $11b dollar industry – 60% going to prescription drugs. Now 1 company controls that. So is it valuable enough for your company to own that domain?

Movie companies are converting better from film merchandise through direct navigation.

James Beriker

Most categories are growing and people are willing to spend more online. Consumers are also willing to pay for premium services like premium delivery etc.

Retail spend doubled year over year. Google search spend grow 134%

Google most effective at driving conversions for retailers
Spend preferences show MSN has higher conversion rates relative to yahoo

Conversion Best Practices
* Quality Score: User experience (conversion funnel) & Account Structure
* Higher quality score – more clicks @ lower cpc – more conversions – more revenue at lower CPA/higher ROI
* User experience determined by 3 things that must be congruent (search query, ad copy, landing page)

Search queries must be relevant
* Make sure title and description is relevant to that keyword and then make sure your landing page actually offers that

Account Structure Rules
* Organize Campaigns by product type
* Create ad groups based by product
* Inventory-based advertising (if your ad groups are organized by product, you can easily pause a group for out of stock product

Promotions
* Offers increase click-through rate in ad copy
* Offers only increase conversional rate. Is message is reinforced on landing page?
* Align print and online campaigns

Landing Pages
* Motivation
* Value proposition (clarity of value proposition)
* Friction (are u setting up resistance or clutter on your page)
* Incentive (counteracts friction)
* Anxiety (are there reasons on page not to buy)

Contributed by: Justin Davy is a search engine marketing specialist for the E.W. Scripps Company and a guest writer for SER.

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