Notes and Thoughts on Grocery 2.0

I was lucky enough to spend the past week at the SMX West search marketing conference hosted by Search Marketing Land and it was really interested to see how the economy has affected the search marketing industry. So what’s the low down?  Search is widely viewed to be more important than it was before.

This is largely due to the fact that the SEM results are so easily measurable compared to traditional forms of media. Where one may have to wait for the next issue to hit the stands to see your big, pricey print ad, wait for that radio spot to get on air or the TV commercial to run – your paid search results are almost instantaneous. Within days of setting up a campaign on Google, marketers can begin to measure ROI. Campaigns are also easily targeted, spend can be adjusted depending on the hour of the day and your impression share can be either massive or restricted to your niche depending on your strategy. Beats the pants off that pretty little print ad!

So what have the search marketers  seen in terms of budget cuts and reallocation? For the most par

t, paid search/sem/seo has stayed the same or recieved a larger chunk of that reallocated budget.  Search has become an integral part of the way users shop, for retailers it’s inconceivable not to have an online strategy. With Google snatching up 60% of all internet searches it would be silly not to at least try to rank well in the engine, organically and sponsored.

The same old issues  – organic search optimization (SEO) is a longer term project and incredibly important, many companies do not consider SEO a top priority.  Jessica Bowman held a fantastic series of sessions on how to set up, implement & manage  SEO in-house – focusing on how to work it into the project life cycle. SEO is great because it doesn’t cost nearly the amount paid search does. Ranking well organically for a search term is just as important as holding down that 1st position in sponsored – people do still click on other search results. The beauty of SEO is that you can achieve the same results as with paid search, it just takes longer. The buy- in for paid search seemed to be more easily attained as it can be directly linked to sales and measurable ROI.

One major trend is the switch from agency to in-house sems. Where the majority of the conference attendees at SMX LoMo in July ‘08 came from agencies, the vast majority of everyone at SMX West were in-house. I’m not sure if this has more to do with cost effectiveness of losing the agency or acknowledgment that your sem/seo is best done by someone who knows your product. Internal resources that can work within the company to ensure and execute a comprehensive online strategy are invaluable.

For a full recap of all the festivities visit SMX West 09 and don’t forget to sign up for SMX Advanced!

Some of My Highlights From SMX:

• Keynotes with Vint Cerf, John Battelle & Danny Sullivan
• Legal Session on Trademarks, gTLDs & Privacy
• Advanced Keyword Research panel
• Advanced Landing Pages
• In-House Day with Jessica Bowman

Budgets change, companies come and go but one thing is certain – Search is definitely here to stay and it’s going to be an exciting year.

Elise

Search Engine Marketing Workshop

Search Engine Marketing: Advanced Strategies for a Competitive Market
Search marketing is one of the most widely used marketing techniques by online retailers. Yet search marketing is complex and requires extensive and specialized knowledge for a program to be successful. This day-long workshop is designed to provide in-depth strategies, tactics and techniques that retailers can apply immediately to improve their search engine marketing programs.

Creating the right search campaigns: How your product mix affects how much you spend on search?

Different types of retailers need different search approaches. Low-margin retailers or retailers selling products with lots of competition, need to know just how low their keyword bids must be. Retailers selling a more expensive product or merchandise that consumers take time to make up their minds about can spend more, but that spend is usually spread over more terms. This session will help retailers understand how their merchandise reflects their keyword bids and how to create consistent, successful, high-ROI keywords campaigns that take margin into account.

Come to the show and check it out! 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM, Day One—June 15, 2009 at the Boston Convention and Exhibit Center.

Cheers!
Courtney

Have you ever noticed that certain search results display category links under the description of the website? These links are reflect the navigation of the website and let you jump to the page you’re looking for just a bit faster than you would if you landed on the homepage first.  These links are Google’s way of displaying more relevant results and trying to make your life easier. Well how do you get those links to display under your listing? It isn’t so simple.

If you’re using Google’s Webmaster Tools than you’ve probably noticed the area called “Sitelinks”. This is where you can see which navigation links the Googlebot has indexed and is showing with your site deescription. After a little poking around I discovered that while you can tell Google which links you do not want displayed, you can’t tell it which ones you do. The Googlebot has to find your sitelinks on it’s own. Bummer.

Sitelinks display under the search result

So how do you tell Google which sitelinks are important for your website – and ultimately, your user (because Google is ALL about the end user). In your html code. Here are a few tips from Kerry Dean of Range Online Media on how to let Google know which links to display:

The main site’s overall popularity, domain authority and brand popularity. If your site ranks No. 1 for a search term, you have better chances of having Sitelinks listed in the first place.

Optimized internal link structure. Tell Google which pages are important through optimized internal linking.
Optimal anchor text in all links on the site. Reinforce keywords in all links, and place very important links toward the top of the page.

Solid SEO implementation for all pages and on-page factors. Implement solid SEO strategies for every page on the site. This helps tie everything together for relevancy and authority.

Competition of the vertical. The tougher the competition in the vertical, the tougher it will be to rank No. 1 for certain terms. It’s easier to gain Sitelinks for searches with less competition.

Read the entire article at MediaPost.com

Happy Optimizing!

Elise

July 31 2008, Colchester VT: MyWebGrocer has increased the number of new customer orders an average of 16% through its partnership with NetElixir for its participating retail grocers. NetElixir is the Pay Per Click partner that powers MyWebGrocer’s unique retail grocery acquisition program where retailers only pay for new customers that place a new order. This CPA based program takes the complexity and risk out of traditional customer acquisition programs for retail grocers.

“Our team has been working closely with NetElixir over the last year and right out of the gate they improved our internal efforts by 60%. This with their ability to build a dedicated team to support our Grocery CPA program 24-7-365 has given MyWebGrocer a significant advantage to our retailers who are competing against Wal-Mart, Target, and Amazon’s massive PPC efforts.” Explained Alec Newcomb, Vice President of Business Development at MyWebGrocer.

“Our partnership drives significant efficiency in the search advertising management program for online retailers” explains Udayan Bose Founder & CEO of NetElixir. “The domain expertise of MyWebGrocer and search advertising optimization capabilities and technology of NetElixir would combine to generate disproportionate return on advertising dollars for our customers.”

About MyWebGrocer: MyWebGrocer was one of the first to launch online services for retail grocers in 1999. MyWebGrocer increases basket size, acquires new customers, retains current customers, and drives revenue in-store and online business for their clients. MyWebGrocer has the largest grocery advertising network in the country covering 85% of the US, earning their clients direct ad revenue. Some of their clients include Shoprite, Lowes Food Stores, Big Y, Food Lion and 80 other leading grocery chains. For more information please visit www.mywebgrocer.com or call 1-888-662-2284.

About NetElixir: NetElixir, Inc (www.NetElixir.com) is one-stop-shop for all search advertising management needs. NetElixir offers both technology and full-service 24×7x365 management of pay-per-click search marketing campaigns that help online retail marketers generate profitable and predictable returns from their search marketing dollars. NetElixir has helped more than 50 online retailers including NetGrocer, Vermont Teddy Bear, KSwiss, Luggage Online & Carpet One run consistently profitable SEM campaigns, through a combination of proprietary technology and sophisticated processes. For information regarding NetElixir’s search engine marketing solutions please contact Udayan Bose at udayan@netelixir.com or call at 609-356-5112.

In my opinion, understanding web analytics sometimes feels like predicting the weather. There are some standards in place already. Like 90% chance of rain probably means it’s going to rain. But, more often than not, some level of disagreement exists. Metrics definitions, the validity of measurement and third party reporting/accreditation are sources of debate for web analysts, salespeople and advertisers. So, when everyone’s prediction differs, how do you know who’s right?

One of the buzz words that attempts to answer this predicament is transparency. Transparency means defining how you will measure something, applying industry standards when possible and being consistent.

With that in mind, I have defined the most common online metrics. Let the clarification begin!

Rachel
______________________________________________________________________

Clicks: A metric which measures the reaction of a user to an Internet ad or linked editorial content. There are three types of clicks: click-throughs, in-unit clicks and mouseovers.

Click-through rate (CTR): The average number of click-throughs per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage.

It is important to understand the limits of click-through rate as the sole metric by which an advertisement’s effectiveness is measured. CTR measures the percentage of people who clicked on the ad to arrive at the destination site, but does not include the people who arrived at the site later as a result of seeing the ad. CTR is a measure of the immediate response to an ad, but not the overall response to an ad.

Clicks had more value when Web site traffic was accepted as a measure of success regardless of where users went after they landed on the site. The trend towards profitability, along with advanced tracking capabilities, has resulted in less interest in click-through rates and more interest in conversion rates.

Conversion rate: The percentage of visitors who take a desired action.

Examples of desired actions include sales, registrations, downloads, and virtually anything beyond page browsing. A high conversion rate depends on several factors: the interest level of the consumer, the attractiveness of the offer and the ease of the action to name a few.

The interest level of the consumer can be maximized by reaching the right visitor, in the right place, and at the right time.

The attractiveness of the offer depends on relevancy, includes the value proposition and how well it is presented. Small, impulse items (like groceries) typically have a higher conversion rate than large, shopping items.

The consumer’s ease in completing the desired action is largely dependent on site usability, intuitive navigation and fast loading pages.

Demographics: Common characteristics used for population or audience segmentation, such as age, gender, household income, education, marital status, etc. A network with a strong demographic that is in line with an advertiser’s desired target audience will be more effective than a broad national network.

Impression: A single instance of an online advertisement being displayed. Ad impressions indicate how many times an advertisement is seen in total.

Page View: A request to load a single HTML page. Page views indicate how many times a webpage is seen in total.

Search Engine Optimization: The process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search. For more information on SEO and Google, check out Google Papers , a list of publications and white papers written by Google employees.

Stickiness: The amount of time spent at a site over a given time period.

Unique Visitors: Individuals who have visited a site or network at least once in an allotted time frame, often a 30 day period.

Most measurements of unique visitors are estimates. Sites often calculate unique visitors based on IP address information and through cookies. However, many factors may skew the results.

Traffic rating companies typically calculate unique visitors by monitoring actual usage of a group of volunteers (called panel data), then applying the results to a network’s population. Some, notably Quantcast , use direct publisher data and panel data.