Search Marketing

Profitable search engine management is never the result of just one thing. It’s a system – a machine in which each part plays an important role: keyword research, benefit-driven ad copy, targeted landing pages, rigorous conversion tracking, competitive SEO, search trademark enforcement. When any of these parts are missing – or poorly built – the system cannot reach peak performance. That’s when you start spending too much, getting fewer sales and watching helplessly as competitors steal your search positions.

Unfortunately, most SEM companies go a mile wide and an inch deep with this. Keyword research was done – but how thoroughly? PPC ads were written – but is the same generic ad being shown to everybody? Landing pages were created- but do they match the ads that sent people there? Is it clear how many sales or leads are produced by these activities?

Chances are, your company has one of the two broken search compensation models discussed below.

The system in a nutshell:

Every keyword is its own market. What motivates Person A to type keyword A into Google is different than what motivates Person B to type Keyword B into Google. Person B could be further along in the buying process than Person A – and both of these searchers need to be spoken to differently. This is where we start categorizing different searchers by strength of intent and readiness to buy.

Ad Copy

Your PPC ads need specific promises of tangible, appealing value and calls to action. Bland corporate slogans wont cut it. Furthermore, each ad must be be hyper-targeted to the searcher who sees it. What persuades Person A to click is often ignored by Person B. When you work with us, every searcher will see advertisements tailored uniquely to them.

Landing Pages

If Person A and Person B both search for different keywords – and click different ads – why would you send them to the same landing page? If you want to make sales, you don’t. The same “conversations” that start in your ads need to be continued on your landing pages and those landing pages need to close the sale. When you work with us, they will.

Conversion Tracking & Optimization

Every component of your search marketing system needs to pull its own weight and be held accountable for bottom-line results. That’s why Excedra tracks every sale (or lead) back to the keyword, advertisement, landing page, search engine and expenditure that produced it. At the end of each month, you get a conversion optimization report with not only the raw numbers, but what they actually mean for your company and its position on the search engines in both PPC, and SEO.

Continuous Testing & Improvement

A search marketing system is never as good as it could be. The way to achieve max performance is by continuously testing different elements and “beating the winner” over time. Using multi-variate Taguchi testing, Excedra ensures your search marketing system gets smarter and sharper month after month. As Seth Godin says: “You can raise the bar or you can wait for others to raise it, but it’s getting raised regardless.”

Search Trademark Enforcement

If you are a major brand, competitors are displaying their ads when people search for your company. Believe it or not, this actually drives up your PPC costs by forcing you into a bidding war for your own trademarks! Instead of paying $0.10 or $0.50 per click (because you’re the only bidder) you wind up paying $3.00 or $5.00 or more (because you’re one of several bidders.) Excedra puts a stop to this immediately, using both software and human monitoring for trademark enforcement to make sure that people looking for you only see you.

Natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

According to SEMPO, over 75% of all search traffic comes from the natural, organic results. Here’s a heat map that proves it. So why is over 85% of the world’s SEM budget spent on PPC instead of SEO? Answer: SEO is harder. But that doesn’t mean you should avoid it. At Excedra, we understand SEO and bring specific, implementable answers to each client we work with. Your company will dominate the search results for every keyword that matters.

Social Media Optimization

Has your company been interested in social media marketing but reluctant to get started? We can’t blame you. It’s a lot like SEO: enormous profit potential, but absolutely worthless without a practical game plan. That’s where we come in. We have the social media skills & connections to get people talking about your company – and buying your products – in a completely trackable manner.

Sure. Other companies can, theoretically, do these things. So what’s the difference? We only get paid when it works.

That’s right. If your company meets our qualification criteria, we will build this entire infrastructure for you and charge only for the sales (or leads) it produces. Forget about setup charges, number-of-keyword fees, campaign management royalties or monthly minimums. And forget about hiring separate teams for PPC, SEO and social media. When you work with Excedra, Search is Solved – and you buy results, not promises.

Search Marketing FAQ

 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) FAQ

• Why is Search Engine Traffic so important?
• What are Crawlers? How do they work?
• What are Inbound Links? How are they important to the SEO process?
• What is a Sitemap, and why is it important for SEO?
• What is Page Rank? How important is it for SEO?
• What are Meta Tags and how are they useful in SEO?
• What is a Meta Description and what is its purpose in terms of SEO?
• What is the Meta Keyword tag, and is it important for SEO?
• Do the file names of my web pages have any effect on search engine optimization?
• What is Black Hat SEO? Why is it bad?
• What are search engine Banned Websites and how do they become banned?
• Is Adobe Flash bad for SEO?
• Will Javascript code on my site affect my search engine ranking?
• What is Search Optimization, and how can it help my business web site?
• How should I go about Search Optimizing A Web Site?

Paid Search (PPC) FAQ

• Introduction to Paid Search Advertising (PPC Management)
• Why do I need a PPC campaign for my business?
• How does a PPC campaign work?
• Where will my PPC Ads appear?
• How much does it Cost Per Click to advertise on Search Engines?
• What PPC search engines do you work with?
• How exactly do you “optimize” a paid search campaign? What does that mean?
• Can I change my PPC budget? Can I add products or services?
• Why do I need Keyword Research? I know the most important keywords already.
• What should I do first? PPC advertising, or Natural Search Optimization?