2. Table of Content
Introduction
Goals, KPIs, and Targeting
SEM Measurement with Web Analytics
SEM Budgeting & ROI
Branding & Brand Keywords
In-house SEM Management
SEM Outsourcing Guide
Benefits of Content Network
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
3. Introduction to
Search Engine Marketing
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
5. What is Search Engine
Marketing?
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is keyword
driven, demand generation marketing. It
consists of search engine optimization
(SEO) and pay-per-click management (PPC).
Almost half of all searches are to find a
product or service to buy, and advertisers
can pay for a click-through via sponsored
search listing (PPC) for a qualified lead to a
potential purchase.
Note: In many Asian markets, when people talk
about SEM, it just means PPC. This guide does
not cover knowledge on SEO though the term
“SEM” is adopted in this guide.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
6. Benefits of SEM
Cost effective marketing. There is no cost
to advertisers until someone shows interest
in the ad by clicking on it.
Targeted marketing. People search for what
they are interested; unlike push marketing
with mass media like TV, SEM is more
targeted, permission based, and can be
constantly optimized for better
performance.
Broad reach. With SEM, even SME can
target worldwide with limited budget.
Measurable. Incitez runs data-driven SEM
campaigns which are measurable with
radical improvement in campaign
performance.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
7. Benefits of SEM
Flexible budgeting. You can spend as
much as millions per month or as little as
a few hundred; it’s up to you.
ROI driven marketing. With proper
tracking, your SEM marketing can be
measured against ROI.
Timing. You can engage potential
customers at precisely the right moment.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
9. Common Goals of SEM
campaign
To generate online sales. Ifyou have an
e-commerce store with online transaction
capabilities, you want to generate sales
online via SEM. Choices of KPI are:
Cost Per Conversion or Cost Per Sale
(CPS): SEM cost divided by number of
sales
Return On Advertising Spending
(ROAS): a measure of the effectiveness
of your SEM marketing program. ROAS
is computed by dividing revenue
resulting from SEM campaigns by the
search engine spend.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
10. Common Goals of SEM
campaign
To generate online leads. Drive your
potential buyers to the site and get them to
leave their contact details. Cost Per Lead
(CPL) is widely used KPI for B2B SEM
campaigns.
To drive online registrations. Registrations
are essential to online community sites. You
want to understand the cost per registration
value and keep reducing it.
To drive traffic for awareness marketing.
Take note of the bounce rate, average time
on site, and engagement. However, if
average time on site is too long could
indicate a bad site architecture so that
visitors find it very hard to find the right
information.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
11. Common Goals of SEM
campaign
Others. ALWAYS define a goal for your
SEM campaigns; there must be more
than visits you expect from online users.
Here's a list of more goals you can
define:
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12. SEM Targeting
Keywords Targeting. SEM is keywords
driven marketing, enabling you a better
targeted campaign.
Geographic targeting. Either targeting a
country or several cities, you can do so
with all search engines.
Language.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
13. SEM Targeting
Related Websites. For finance products,
you may want to targets finance websites
visitors like those on WSJ.com, FT.com,.
You can do so with:
Placement targeting
Contextual targeting
Ad scheduling. Control the days and
times your SEM campaigns target.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
15. Traditional Advertising
V.S. SEM
Half the money I spend on
advertising is wasted.
The trouble is I don't know which
half.
Luckily, what John Wanamaker
said is not true in SEM
marketing, which is measurable
with web analytics.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
16. Web Analytics
Visitors. From your search engine
reports, you can tell how many clicks are
generated, which roughly equals to the
number of visits.
Bounced visits. Normal visitors landed
on your site after clicking on your PPC
listing; but he was not interested after
a glimpse of your site, and he simply
exit. This (bounce rate) is something
you can get from most web analytics
report.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
17. Web Analytics
Content.
Is your site content interesting and
attractive enough to keep the visitors
there?
If you run an online store, you want to
find out on which step of the checking
out process do most exits occur.
Can people find what you expect them
to?
Which are the top visited pages?
Which pages have the highest bounce
rates or exit rates?
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
18. Web Analytics
Traffic.
Where are your visitors from?
Search engine? Natural search traffic
or paid search?
Email campaign?
Direct access?
Referred by some other websites?
Which websites referred traffic with
high conversions?
What search terms do people use to
find your site in search engines?
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
19. Web Analytics
Conversions. Conversion is your goal of
online marketing campaigns; different
business may have different goals, but
most goals can be tracked with web
analytics.
Which SEM campaign drives most
conversions or sales?
What are the top converting keywords?
CPA value (cost per conversion or cost
per acquisition).
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
20. Web Analytics
Search queries V.S. SEM Keywords
Search queries are different from PPC
keywords. Queries are the exact terms
people use in search engines to search.
SEM Keywords are what you use in
SEM campaigns along with different
matching options to target your
potential customers.
You need web analytics to "catch" all
converting queries from SEM
campaigns so that you can update your
SEM with more targeted keywords. In
addition, the search queries are helpful
to your search engine optimization.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
21. FREE Web Analytics Tools
Google Analytics
Woopra (real time web tracking)
Statcounter
Piwik (open source web analytics)
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
23. SEM Budgeting
What’s important to include in the SEM
report for the management?
Total budget
Clicks / Visits
Conversions
(such as downloads, registrations,
clicks, number of sales and etc.)
Revenue generated online
ROI (return on investment)
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
24. Estimate SEM Spend on
Google
1. Generate a list of keywords with
search engine keywords tools like
these:
adwords.google.com/select/
KeywordToolExternal
tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/
seobook/
2. Use Google traffic estimator to
estimate the cost and clicks.
adwords.google.com/select/
TrafficEstimatorSandbox
3. Take seasonality and promotions into
consideration to adjust the estimate.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
25. Estimate SEM Spend on
Other SE
Referring to search engine market
share in different market, relatively
estimate the spend and clicks on
other search engines.
Refer to user demographic data in
each search engine as well for more
accurate estimate; but this sometimes
requires experience.
Estimating SEM spend takes time and
experience; an easy way is to ask your
agency to come up with a budget
proposal with verifications.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
26. Estimate Conversions & ROI
• Equals clicks (roughly)
Visits
• Conversions = Visits X CR
• Get conversion rate (CR) estimate from history performance
Conversio
ns
• Return = Total online revenue - SEM spend
(possibly including agency account management fee)
Return
• No revenue directly generated online: assign a money value to each conversion
• ROI = Return / SEM Spend
ROI
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
28. Impact of Branding on
Search Ad Effectiveness
Microsoft and Sony
conducted a research study to evaluate
the impact of branding on Sony’s search
ad effectiveness.
The results illustrate that exposure to
search ad considerably lifted purchase
intent and drove likelihood of
recommendation.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
29. Impact of Branding on
Search Ad Effectiveness
Branded search terms proved to further
enhance the value of search advertising.
This study demonstrated:
Exposure of search ad lifted purchase
intent and drove likelihood of
recommendation.
Search ads with branded terms were
more effective in driving brand lift than
generic terms.
Audiences exposed to Sony search ads
had less positive attitudes towards
competitors’ brands.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
30. The Brand Lift Of Search
In a whitepaper released by Enquiro showed a
significant correlation between companies in the
top organic (natural search) and paid search
(PPC) placements and consumer brand affinity,
brand recall and purchase intent.
A 16% point increase in brand association
when brand is in top ad and top organic
listings
A 2.2x lift in aided brand recall when brand is
in top ad and top organic listings
When brand is in top ad and top organic
listings, purchase consideration increases 8%
points
Consumers are less likely to consider
purchasing a brand that doesn’t appear on the
search results page
Even for branded queries, presence in top ad
and top organic listings boosts purchase intent
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
31. The Brand Lift Of Search
The eye tracking study reveals consumer insights:
Brand fixations occurred in the URL and title of
the listing; not in the description
Best practice: Place your brand in the title,
URL, and as close to the start of the
description as possible in your ad and
organic listings
Subjects with established affinity for the brand
spent 25% less time on the top ad listing,
jumping down to the organic listings 73%
faster than the non-affinity group
Best practice: Ad listings appear to have a
greater opportunity to lift brand affinity
among new customers; write and target
them as such – especially for upper
funnel queries
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
32. The Brand Lift Of Search
Lessons:
Your investment in brand advertising
increases with search
Advertise on unbranded and branded
keywords
Tailor your ad to prospects
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
33. Identify the Trend of Brand
Searches
Find more online trend tools here: http://bit.ly/online-trend
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
34. How Search Branding
Works
SERPs basically include sponsored and organic listings,
each of which consists of title, description, and display
URL.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
35. Should You Bid on Your Brand
Name?
Your website probably comes first in
natural result on brand name search; but
what happens when your competitors or
affiliates bid on that brand name too?
Without bidding on your own brand
name, your natural listing could show in
the 2nd or even 4th position.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
36. Should You Bid on Your Brand
Name?
Bidding on your brand name allows you
to control the ad copy that appears in the
sponsored search and control the landing
page.
Appearing in both the organic and
sponsored search engine results can
increase click-through rates significantly.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
37. Search Branding
Measurement
Search branding can be measured
through engagement. The following
metrics can be helpful to you to get
started:
Average Time on Site
Page Views per Visit
Form submissions
Downloads
RSS / Email subscriptions
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
39. Should You Hire A PPC
Staff?
How much have you been constantly
spending on paid search campaigns
every month? More importantly, how
much extra do you need to pay in terms
of account management fee if you
outsource to an agency or third party to
do it?
How many markets do you target? Do you
have the resources to handle difference
languages?
How many search engines do you use?
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
40. SEM Qualification
Web Analytics. Be familiar with the basics
of web analytics; not necessarily the exact
web analytics software your company uses.
If your company uses Google Analytics ,
sponsor him/her to take the IQ test.
Search Engines. Depending on your target
markets, it's important the search marketer
has got experience in top search engines of
each market. However, if a person is very
familiar with one search engine (especially
Google), it won't be a problem to get used
to the others.
Language Abilities. This is a must. The
person you are to hire must be capable of
reading and writing in all local languages in
your MAIN markets.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
41. SEM Qualification
Experience.
Related industry experience
Optimization. What have been done to
optimize the campaign?
Past campaign objectives and outcome.
Is it just driving traffic or ROI driven
campaigns?
Monthly budget one has handled
independently (and, you may want to
ask how your candidate did budgeting).
Business Acumen. SEM is not technical
work; someone without business acumen
can hardly work out a proper SEM
strategy.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
42. Set KPIs for SEM Team
Total Conversions from PPC
PPC ROAS
Reward the
PPC Cost Per Conversion team
accordingly.
Conversion Rate
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44. When You Might Want to
Outsource
Limited staff but too many products to
promote
No experience managing SEM in-house
Return on the PPC investment was not
what you were looking for
Lack of capabilities in certain markets
(especially language abilities)
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
45. Alternative to SEM
Outsourcing
In-house SEM
Ask for help from Search Engines
This might be difficult when you have to
deal with multiple search engines in
several markets
Not all search engine account
managers are concerned about your
business performance from search
With Incitez, you can completely outsource your PPC
campaigns or have our optimizers to work with your in-house
PPC staff.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
46. What to Ask for in SEM
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Company registration certificate
Years of experience
Past accounts handled
Past accounts managed in the same
industry and the produced results
Bio and qualifications ofthe staff who
will manage your SEM campaign; roles
and responsibilities; and, how many
accounts each person manages.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
47. What to Ask for in SEM
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Who builds and maintains the keyword list
(and how)
What bidding system the agency uses. If
they have their own system, it's a good sign.
But you want to know more details of the
bidding system. You don't want to pay an
agency tens of thousands every month who
rely entirely on machine's input.
How the agency handles seasonal effects
and promotions
How frequent a report will be submitted and
the content of the report
Who will analyze the campaign performance
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
48. What to look for?
Meet the guy who is actually managing PPC
for you and find out the years and industry
of experience
KPI. Ask the agency to recommend a set of
KPI after sharing your business objective. If
only very basics like clicks and CTR are
recommended, stay away from those
agencies.
Fee. Are they charging a fair amount of
account managing fee? Compare and ask
agencies to verify what services are
included.
Tracking and reporting. Ifyou are not into
web analytics, ask for a reporting template
and see whether it makes sense to you.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
51. Benefits of Content
Network
Reach. If you want to reach broader audience,
content network helps. Just Google AdWords
content network reaches over 70% of unique
Internet users around the world.
Awareness. The content network has the
advantage of reaching potential customers at
different points of the buying cycle. If you are to
launch products of a new category, search can
hardly help (unless you run off-line campaigns)
without content network driving awareness.
Branding. Most search networks (one exception is
Baidu) only allows text ads, which makes content
network more valuable for online branding
campaigns. You can run text ads, image ads, and
video ads on content network pages.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
52. Google Content Network
Ads on the Google Content Network can be
an effective way to gain additional
conversion beyond those you get via search.
When used in combination with Search,
the median advertiser has a content CPA
that's within approximately 2% of their
Search CPA.
The Content Network drives nearly 20%
of total conversions for the median
advertisers
Conversion rates are higher for advertisers
who used either of two AdWords campaign
management controls: the Conversion
Optimizer and site exclusion.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
53. Content Network
Recommendation
Consider complementing your search
campaigns with campaigns on the
Content Network, if you haven't done so
already.
Use tools for content optimization such
as the Conversion Optimizer, Placement
Performance Reports, and the Site and
Category Exclusion tool. They can help
you further tailor your Content Network
performance to meet your advertising
goals.
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
55. About Incitez
Incitez is a data-driven digital marketing
company providing digital strategy
consulting and digital marketing
campaign development. We partner with
clients to identify their opportunities in
digital space, address their challenges,
and advance their businesses with
custom digital solutions.
You can find out more about us at our
website: www.incitez.com
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
56. Incitez Search
Data-driven search marketing; campaign
performance are constantly measured
and optimized
Performance-based pricing; you pay for
what you get
(more conversions; higher ROI)
Certified search specialists by Google
For more, please visit:
www.incitez.com/channels/sem
and Baidu
Multilingual capabilities
Solutions: search strategy, in-house
training, campaign management
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing
57. Thank You!
Contact Incitez
Rocky Fu
E: rockyfu@incitez.com
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/rockyfu
Incitez | Data-Driven Digital Marketing