Practical tips to improve AdWords click volume and quality, particularly relevant for B2B and low volume B2C accounts

PPC traffic, in most accounts, have a very uneven distribution between the ad groups. What I find is that usually there are a few ad groups that get lots of traffic and then lots of long tail ad groups that each get a little bit of traffic. This makes ad improvement tricky for the majority of ad groups. In order to improve ads we always run 2 or 3 ads in an ad group to see which one performs best over time and then optimise towards the best performer. So unless the ad groups ads have each had a high number of impressions and clicks then we cannot make a decision on which ad is performing best. Fine for the few high traffic ad groups, but less easy for the majority of the ad groups. This…

"The true price of free and cheap in A/B and Multivariate testing"

In this infographic, Maxymiser.com as a provider of a paid service are looking to educate marketers about the benefits of paid-for outsourced services for AB testing compared to Google's free Content Experiments tool (formerly Google Website Optimizer) or similar. It's an example of using an infographic to help position a service. We're including it since weighing up the costs-benefits of these services is an issue across these types of services listed at WhichMVT.com.

Their infographic shares advice on how to choose the right tool/software and compares managing MVT in-house vs managed services where experiments are designed and managed by the service provider. It also suggests the hidden costs if you manage a free or low-cost solution in-house.

'Clients using managed services or enterprise graded solutions, have experienced 6x more uplift in conversion than those using DIY testing programs'

…

Maximise your affiliate recruitment by thinking like your potential affiliate partners

In my last post I talked about the need for affiliate recruitment and why it was important to always be looking at how to grow your affiliate programme, keeping an eye out for new and emerging affiliates. That is all well and good, but how do you find these affiliates and attract them to your programme? I tend to think of affiliate recruitment as having 4 key areas.

1. Differentiation and programme benefits

One of the most important areas for recruitment in my eyes is the need to know why affiliates should promote you. There are many affiliates out there and you might unearth some gems, but if you cannot give them a good reason to promote you over your competitors, why would they?

Think about what sets you apart from your competitors. Do you pay a higher commission? Can you give…

At least I assume they do. 12 months ago after subscribing to their home media package (phone, TV and wifi), I started receiving letters through the post from Virgin Mobile trying to sell me a new mobile phone contract. I hadn't answered any questions or filled anything in as part of my sign up to Virgin Media to a) suggest I was interested or b) to indicate I needed a new phone contract. But hey, they sent them anyway. Regularly. More recently I cancelled my Virgin Media package and notified them of the date we were moving out. They told me they would send boxes for me to post back the set top box and router and we agreed the date the services would be cut off. However, before the boxes even arrived I started receiving letters through the post addressed to 'the new homeowner'. Intrigued I opened one, to find that Virgin…

New features to support content marketing and hiring new candidates

Value: [rating=3] Recommended Link: Showcase Pages and LinkedIn Talent Updates LinkedIn have announced two new features this week: Showcase Pages and Talent Updates. So, how are these new services relevant to marketers?

Showcase Pages are new, focused brand pages

This new feature is most worthy of consideration by marketers. They provide businesses with a more targeted page to promote a specific product or brand, with a maximum of 10 showcase pages, so content can now be targeted and more relevant to specific audiences. At the moment these are free. Microsoft have piloted this with a showcase page for their Office product you can see more examples of Showcase Pages from Adobe and others by following the   Do you need to set these up? We think most companies will decide…

6 reasons you should consider a tag management tool

With the increasing number and variety of tools now available to the online marketer, it’s possible to learn more than ever before about how visitors to a desktop site, mobile site or app are interacting with the content they find. There are also an increasing number of tools to target these users through personalisation. However, many of these tools need their own tag adding to the site pages to record and target users. Tag management systems have been developed to make the process of adding and modifying tags easier and less error-prone for site managers. The release of Google's Tag Manager has highlighted the value of these tools although this is a free tool while many of the others are paid for. In the new Smart Insights guide to Tag Management Systems we show the…

Why you need a Content Engagement Calendar in 2014

2014 is almost upon us and it’s that time of year when we all start to look forward and plan marketing activities for the coming year. Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past two years, you’ll be all too familiar with the fact that content marketing is on the rise. In fact, 64% of UK marketers are planning to increase their budget for content marketing next year, and according to Forbes, the top marketing job in 2014 will be a Director of Content. If these stats are anything to go by, we better fasten our seat belts and knuckle down to do some strategic planning on what content to publish during the coming year, and decide which websites and publications to target so that your content contains the right messages and…

But search and direct visits dominate...

The role of social media in driving visits to transactional sites like retail and travel if often documented. Research on corporate sites is more limited, so in this post we summarise research from a provider of corporate sites. The Investis IQ Insight Audience Q3 2013 analyses 2 million visits across 60 corporate websites and nearly 7 million views per month. They sample includes a range of companies, by size and sector across the FTSE 100, FTSE 250, Small CAP and AIM companies and a small section from Europe. The report highlights where there has been the greatest change over two years, and is aimed at companies who wish to ensure that their 'digital communications reflects the needs of their corporate audience'.

Overall importance of social media

The findings show that social media has the least impact on driving traffic to corporate websites; 54% is driven by search and…

6 simple techniques to build business relationships through email marketing

Even though email marketing continues to be a core business-to-business (B2B) communication for sales and marketing teams, the market continues to grow from a solely email marketing approach to that of integrated marketing communication.

Rather than using email as a means in which to provide one-way communication the goal is provide marketers with the ability to track, build relationships and manage digital campaigns whilst monitoring a flow of leads - known as Marketing Automation.

Successful marketing automation campaigns consist of three core elements: 1. Email marketing 2. Lead generation 3. An effective marketing database. In this article we're going to look at some basic techniques to build B2B relationships through email. Join our free B2B Email marketing webcast for more details and examples. …

Do you conform to the typical LinkedIn user?

Every wondered how people are actually using LinkedIn? How much time do they spend? Who pays for the premium services? How many groups are people joining? Which features are the most popular? Who uses their company page?

We are not saying that the persona is the same for everyone, since we all have different goals and LinkedIn has such an array of features for brand awareness, lead generation, job hunting and the list can go on. But we are all curious... perhaps this data will help you win an argument or persuade a colleague!

Wayne Breitbarth has produced an infographic, to look at the profile of a LinkedIn user gathering data from Power+Formula and his 2013 LinkedIn Survey.

Some highlights include:

85% of LinkedIn respondents have a free account.35% have joined up…