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SEO vs. PPC: Should I bid on my brand name when I’m the top organic search listing?

Image via CrunchBase

We’re having a big debate within our company about bidding on our brand name. On one side of the fence they’re saying we don’t need to bid on our brand name because we dominate the organic results. On the other side, numerous studies show that combining paid ads with organic listings can dramatically increase conversion rates. Here’s a study from the Atlas Institute showing a 22% increase over search alone. The study also talks about the “last ad” factor where people will click on your ad even though they intended to visit your site anyway so the study contradicts itself. There are many other studies showing it is worth bidding on your brand name. Unfortunately there are many studies showing it’s not worth bidding on your brand name if you rank well organically. The studies all conclude “it depends” whether you should bid on your brand name so round and round we go!

At the Search Engine Strategies conference last August, Rand Fishkin and Melanie Mitchell said their research showed it’s worth bidding on your brand keywords even if you rank well organically. I respect Rand and Melanie so that’s a big plus in the Yes column for me.

Here are some facts that may help you add your two cents to our debate:

We’re bidding about $2 per click for exact match clicks on our brand name and up to $11 per click on our phrase match bids (a wide gap which we’re working to narrow!)
In the organic search results, we control 8 out of 10 search results, including our web pages and some external blogs which have many links to our website
We’re a B2B software company with a six figure product so our sales cycle is long and requires many “touches” with the customer
About 60% of the time, people clicking on our paid brand keywords sign up for a demo of our product which is our “home run” from the marketing perspective
Since we added Ad Extensions to our paid ads, our conversion rate for demos has tripled while spending the same amount on the ads
We’re testing to see if our demo requests decline if we turn off the paid ads since they can click on our organic listing which includes Sitelinks to our demo request form. This is tricky because we don’t want to lose demo requests but we don’t want to have to pay for clicks if they’re willing to click on our organic listing.
Our cost/lead on our brand name paid ads is around $50/lead which is cheap considering each sale is six figures

We know that many people now use the Google search box in their browser toolbar instead of using the address bar. This means they’re just entering our brand name as a Google search instead of typing www.brandname.com in their address bar which would take them directly to our website. I’m sure Google loves the fact that people would rather do a Google Search and make an extra click to visit a website instead of typing a few extra characters but it makes us pay for extra clicks on our ads. Considering our cost/lead and the amount of each sale, it seems like a no brainer to continue running the ads in parallel with our organic domination. But if we turn off our ads, we could spend that money on other advertising channels.

What would you do if you were in our position?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Atlas, B2b Software, blogs, Brand Name, conversion rate, Conversion Rates, Demo, Exact Match, Gap, marketing, Melanie Mitchell, organic search results, paid ads, Perspective, phrase, Rand Fishkin, Search Engine Strategies, Side Of The Fence, Software Company, Strategies Conference, Two Cents, Web Pages, Wide Gap

I don’t have time to blog!

By Ted Leave a Comment

Blogging to one of the hottest trends on the internet. In case you don’t know what blogging is click here for the definition from wikipedia. Writing a blog for your business is a tremendous way to build a lasting relationship with your customers and prospects. A blog lets you demonstrate your expertise in your niche in addition to letting you express your opinions about current trends in your industry. By commenting on other people’s blog you can expand your potential client base exponentially as well as driving tons of free traffic to your blog.

I’ve been teaching a lot of classes on blogging and the biggest complaint I hear is “I don’t have time to write a blog and to find other blogs to comment on” Here’s a typical conversation in one of my classes:

Ted: You should write at least 3 blog posts a week and comment on other blogs at least 3 times a week
Student: I’m already working 60 hours a week and I don’t have time to write a blog
Ted: Is your practice currently full or do you have more clients than you can handle?
Student: No
Ted: Is your business making a profit or are you just getting by?
Student: Just getting by, barely
Ted: How many hours a week do you spend marketing your business?
Student: I don’t have time to market. I’m too busy running my business.
Ted: So you’re working 60 hours a week, just getting by and you don’t have time to market. Are you working with the right clients and are your charging enough for your services?
Student: I guess not.
Ted: You need to be spending at least 10% of your time marketing your business to your ideal clients. Your ideal clients will understand your value and pay you what your worth. By working with the right clients you will be able to work with fewer clients that will pay you more so you’ll be able to work less than 40 hours a week and make a lot more money. Blogging ss a free way to market your business and reach an unlimited audience. By reading and commenting on blogs that are read by your ideal clients you can build a deep relationship with them and demonstrate your expertise. New clients will find you instead of you chasing the wrong clients. By spending as little as 4 hours a week, you can reach thousands of potential clients via the internet. As your popularity on the internet increases and more people start commenting on your blog posts, you’ll forget that you’re actually marketing your business just by interacting with others.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, blog posts, blogging, i don8217t have time to blog, marketing, perfect client, small business marketing, social media, time to market, web-2.0

How much money are you leaving on the table?

By Ted Leave a Comment

I just returned from a fantastic 10 day vacation in Arizona. After a bit of car trouble (expensive transmission problems – OUCH) in Central California, we made it to our first stop, beautiful Barstow, California (near Hinkley, the toxic town featured in the movie Erin Brockovich). We didn’t get to bed until 2 AM the first night and had to be back on the road at 6 AM to get to the Grand Canyon in time to complete our 8 mile hike into the canyon before it got dark. We finished our 3 hour hike down into the canyon just as the sun was setting. Our destination was the Havasupai Indian Reservation deep in the Grand Canyon. Check out the beautiful pictures at www.havasupaitribe.com

After two longs days of travel and a beautiful but exhausting hike into the canyon, we literally stumbled into the village on the Havasupai Reservation. The Grand Canyon is one of the most beautiful places on earth but the Havasupai Reservation is a very depressing place. The homes are very run down, the locals dump their garbage in their yards, horses leave their fragrant trail everywhere, packs of wild dogs scavenge for food and water, and the locals are very lazy and unmotivated.

Everything is brought in via horses and pack mules so there’s very little fresh food. We watched them unload the packages of Cup of
Noodles, Rice A Roni, tons of soda and Gatorade, and coolers full of pre-packed food straight from your local 7 Eleven. Everything they eat in the valley is microwaveable food with tons of preservatives and sodium. The result is that every local is obese and extremely lazy.

There’s one cafe in town that’s supposed to be open from 8 AM until 6 PM which was our only place to eat. Other than that there was a grocery store and a convenience store that sold the wonderful microwave meals. The locals open and close their businesses at will. Sometimes they’re open all day other days they close when they feel like it. If you ask anyone for directions or help, they look at you and say "I don’t know". They grow peaches but no fresh vegetables or other fruits. They don’t make any jewelry or souvenirs to sell to the thousands of tourists that visit every year. They make no effort at all to earn money to improve their life and living conditions. It’s really sad to see a tribe of people lose their traditions and their desire. They’re content to receive their government stipend and just barely survive.

If they were motivated, they could clean up their village and provide more services to the tourists. The tourists would love to spend money on authentic Indian jewelry and souvenirs. They would love to eat authentic Indian food instead of the microwave meals now
served at the cafe. The locals could make a fortune from the tourists by providing basic services and goods that the tourists are expecting. Look at the Indian tribes that have gaming on their reservations. They’re improving their lives and providing opportunity for
their children. The Havasupai have no interest in improving their situation and helping their children thrive instead of just surviving.

They’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

How much money are you leaving on the table in your business? What other goods and services could you provide to your customers so you can earn more money? Have you asked your customers what else you could provide that they would like to buy from you? What are you waiting for?

Until next time,

Ted

P.S. If you enjoyed this blog post please take a moment to bookmark it using the bookmarking icons below. Click here for a video that shows you how to use the social bookmarking icons.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: expensive transmission problems, how much money, how much money are you leaving on the table, making money, marketing, Money, money making opportunities, social bookmarking icons, social media, social-bookmarking

How To Recession-proof Your Business

By Ted 1 Comment

Recession, the R word, is everywhere. The sky is falling and every business is dying and we’re all going bankrupt. Run for cover because this may be the end for all of us!

People hear the word recession and they panic. The press gets ahold of something and makes it seem a thousand times worse than it really is. There’s so much conflicting news out there and the press just tries to scare the crap out of us. The bottom line is that if you provide a high quality service that solves your customers problems you’ll thrive in any economic environment. Many businesses thrive during recessions by providing products and services absolutely need and can’t live without. Business owners should look at what products and services they provide and add some recession proof items to their menu of offerings.

I found a great list of 107 free or low cost things you can do to market your business. Check out http://netbizexpert.com/r/107 to see this great list compiled by Walt Goshert. It’s a great list that should stimulate some ideas how you can thrive in any economic environment.

Technorati Tags: recession, recession proof your business, small business marketing, marketing

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: business, how to recessionproof your business, marketing, recession, recession proof, recession proof your business, small business, small business marketing, word recession

Why do you trust Apple?

By Ted 1 Comment

[tag-tec]Apple[/tag-tec] is a media darling. For some reason they can do no wrong in the media. Everyone loves Apple’s commmercials and advertising. Everyone loves Apple’s products. Everyone loves Steve Jobs, who is God to all Mac users. Everyone loves the cool look of every Apple product. What isn’t there to love about Apple?

Well, the quality of their first generation of products gives everyone reason to hate them. Look at the awful track record of the [tag-ice]iPod[/tag-ice] when it was released. My kids had so many hardware problems with their iPod. I sent my daughter’s back for repair at least 3 times. The battery died, the screen died and the hard drive died. When it broke the 4th time the warranty was expired so we moved on to the newest generation.

Look at the [tag-tec]iPhone[/tag-tec] which had an estimated return rate of 29% by some experts (the real number will never be released by Apple) The battery failed over and over. The screens failed over and over. The first generation of the [tag-self]iPhone[/tag-self] would be considered a failure by any other company.

And finally the [tag-ice]Mac[/tag-ice]. Users are passionate about their Macs even though they cost 2 to 3 times more than a PC and have a very limited selection of software. They are the coolest looking computers but what good is sleek hardware if you can’t buy the software for it. This probably explains why Apple has only 5% of the personal computer market according to IDC. With the fantastic advertising and marketing plus the most passionate users in history you would expect a 95% market share.

So with all of these failures why does everyone love Apple? I own an [tag-tec]iPod[/tag-tec] (very old one I must say) but no other Apple products. I like their advertising and their computers are far superior to Dell’s but they don’t run the software I need for my business. Actually the new Mac’s will run Windows-based programs but I don’t want to shell out $2500 for a computer when a $600 Dell will do the same for me. But for some reason I like [tag-ice]Apple and Steve Jobs[/tag-ice]. In spite of their awful track record of first generation failures, i still consider Apple a high quality company.

Apple has built a reputation of creating innovative products that meet the consumers desires. People don’t need Apple products, they want them. The very best customer to have!! Apple sees a need and fills it. MP3 music became all the rage in the 90′s but it could only be played on a computer. Apple filled the need by creating the iPod which is one of the most success products in history. Nobody needs an iPod but everyone wants one.

Nobody needs an iPhone but everyone wants one. Who wants to surf the internet on that tiny screen? Or check email on that tiny screen? My neck and eyes hurt thinking about it. But I want an iPhone because it’s cool. It’s a status symbol.

How can you create a trust level for your business as deep as Apple has created? It’s pretty simple actually. Find a need and fill it. Give your customers what they want and charge at least double what you think it should cost and they’ll be begging for more.