The content marketing bandwagon is ridiculously crowded and the vast majority of your efforts go nowhere - 99.9% of content gets fewer than a thousand shares and the average conversion rate from all this stuff is less than 1%. What’s a marketer to do in 2017 and beyond? Spoiler alert: the answer has virtually nothing to with the conventional wisdom of creating “quality content”. In this session on content marketing strategy, Larry will introduce new tactics for creating and cloning unicorns - the rare l content that does remarkably well on all channels, and even converts well, too.
9. How to make Content
Marketing:
• Work More Predictably
• Create More Leads &
• Higher Conversion Rates
• Lower Costs
Big Changes Needed! 5-10x
improvements not just 5-10%!
#searchlove @larrykim
19. #searchlove @larrykim
Content Quality Should Be Based on Data Not
Just Biased Views of Your Own Work
Need Objective Way to Discern
Unicorns vs. Non-Unicorns
22. The Key To AdWords Has Always Been About User
Engagement (Quality Score)
#searchlove @larrykim
23. +/- 1 Point in QS
Results in +/-
9% Ad
Impression
Share on
desktop (or +/-
18% on mobile)
#searchlove @larrykim
CTR (Quality Score) Determines
Ad Visibility in AdWords
24. Quality Score (Dramatically) affects
your AdWords CPC
10 Discounted by 50.0%
9 Discounted by 44.2%
8 Discounted by 37.5%
7 Discounted by 28.6%
6 Discounted by 16.7%
5 Google benchmark
4 Increased by 25.0%
3 Increased by 67.3%
2 Increased by 150.0%
1 Increased by 400.0%
You Save
You Pay
#searchlove @larrykim
25. Quality Score for Gmail Ads (CPC vs. Open Rate)
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26. Quality Score on Google Display Ads (CPC vs. CTR)
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28. Do Engagement Rates Like
CTR & Dwell Time Rate Impact Rankings?
What About Organic Search?
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29. Signs Point to YES:
Engagement Rates
Matter for Organic
Search
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30. User Query Entered
ML Algo Makes a Guess and Re-Writes The Query into
Something it Recognizes (Query Interpretation)
Did The
Result Satisfy
The User?
Great. Next Time I
See Queries Like
This, I’ll Put This
Page at the Top.
Larry’s Greatly Simplified Machine Learning Diagram*
*Note: Not Official Google Diagram.
Rats. Next Time I
See a Query Like
This, I’ll Try Some
Other Page
#searchlove @larrykim
31. What’s A Good Click Through Rate for
Organic Search? (Spoiler Alert: It’s in Flux)OrganicSearchClickThroughRate
High CTR Listings
Floating To Top
Positions
Low CTR Listings
Sinking To
Bottom of Page
Organic Search Position
#searchlove @larrykim
32. +/- 3% Increase in
Post Engagement
+/- 1 Spot in Organic
Position
CTR-Based Organic Ranking Rewards?
#searchlove @larrykim
37. User Browses Feed
Newsfeed algorithm displays something it thinks might
be interesting to the user.
Did User
Engage With
Content?
Great. Next Time I
See Updates Like
This, I’ll show it on
this users newsfeed
and for others like
him/her.
Larry’s Greatly Simplified Facebook Newsfeed Algo*
*Note: Not Official Facebook Diagram.
Rats. Next Time I’ll
try different status
update for this
person and won’t
bother showing it to
people like him/her.
#searchlove @larrykim
38. The Same Stuff That Does Great in Search Tends To Also Do Great
on Social Media
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39. Are They Related to Engagement Rates?
What About Conversion Rates?
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41. Picnic Pants*
(inspired by Wil Reynolds!)
Drones
Vs.
CTR
• Picnic Pants
Drones •
Conversion Rate
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42. These Unicorns All Have High
Engagement in Common!
SEO
Unicorn
Paid/Organic
Social Unicorn
CRO
Unicorn
PPC
Unicorn
#searchlove @larrykim
43. #searchlove @larrykim
PPC, SEO & Social Media Employ
ML-Enabled Algos that Reward High
Engagement Content with Greater
Visibility.
Engagement Rates =
‘On-Base Percentage’ of Content
Marketing!
44. Part 2: What’s a Good
Engagement Rate?
#searchlove @larrykim
46. Post Engagement Rates for 129 Facebook Status
Updates for a Random Customer
#searchlove @larrykim
Unicorn Social Updates
are +10x More Engaging
Than Donkey Posts
47. Unicorns (top 10%) have 6x Higher CTR than
Donkeys (Bottom 10%)
Unicorns
Donkeys
CTR vs. Average Position in Organic Search
#searchlove @larrykim
49. The Top 10% of Offers Convert +5x
Better Than Donkeys
Search Conversion Rate Distribution
Median: 2.35%
Top 25%: 5.31% and Above
Top 10%: 11.45%
and Above
SHAREOFALLACCOUNTS
SEARCH CONVERSION RATE. (WordStream Customer Data – Not Official Google Data)
#searchlove @larrykim
51. #searchlove @larrykim
The Future of
Content Marketing
is Increasingly
Winner-Take-All.
Time to Adjust
Content Strategy!
Traffic to the Top 10 Posts of the
Month at Inc Magazine
62. WordStream Blog Article Performance for
Stories Published in 2016
#searchlove @larrykim
I Worked Hard on All My
Content Last Year But I
Only Found 5 Unicorns
Last Year. The Rest Were
Donkeys!
64. Larry’s Content Marketing Strategy: The
Content Pyramid Scheme
1. Produce and Audition
Lots of Content
2. Measure Engagement
Rates
3. Kill the Donkeys
4. Find The Unicorns and
Sound the Unicorn Alert!
#searchlove @larrykim
81. WordStream Webinar Performance in 2016
Average Donkey: 674
Average Unicorn: 3323
5 Webinars Generated
71% of the Registrations
#searchlove @larrykim
87. 5
4
3
Content Marketing Moneyball:
Data Driven Content Strategy
Optimize for Engagement
ML- Systems Reward High
Engagement w/ Great Visibility.
Audition Lots of Content Ideas
Quantity matters. Improves chances of
unicorn detection.
Find the Unicorns
Identify content with
unusually high engagement
rates
START/GO
(Donkey Land)
#searchlove @larrykim
88. 2
1
Kill Your Donkeys.
Milk Your Unicorns.
Donkey
Elimination
Stop Wasting time
pushing donkeys.
Let them die.
Unicorn Alert
Get off Content
Treadmill. Go nuts with
your best unicorns
across all channels.
END/REPEAT
(Unicorn Land)
– OR is it??
#searchlove @larrykim
89. What Does it All Mean?
Content
Marketing?
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90. How Content Marketing REALLY Works
STEP 1:
Demand Creation: Create & Promote Inspirational / Memorable
Content about Your Brand to your Target Market
STEP 2:
Bias Formation: People See Your Content, But Don’t Necessarily Take
Action Right Away.
STEP 3:
Harvest Demand: Later when the
Need Arises, People either:
Do a Branded Search
for Your Stuff
Do Un-Branded Search but
Biased Towards Clicking &
Buying From You.
#searchlove @larrykim
91. Comparing New vs. Repeat Visitors
How Does Brand Affinity Impact
Content Marketing Success?
#searchlove @larrykim