Budget for Search Marketing

Interview::How Much Should You Budget for Search Marketing in 2005? (Paid Ads vs Site Optimization). In 2004, the average marketer using search ads and/or search engine optimization services, spent a whopping 36% of their online ad budget on it. (That's 15% of their total online/offline budget.)* How much should you be budgeting to spend in 200... [Marketing: Case Studies & Know-How from MarketingSherpa]

 

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Overture and Feedburner May Ratchet RSS Advertising Up A Notch
RSS ads head for the big time.

Overture and Feedburner talk RSS advertising. (via Steve Rubel) Paidcontent is reporting that Feedburner and Overture are talking about an RSS feed/ advertising tie-up that may well see inserted advertising on the feeds of blogs currently utilising the service shortly. [The Blog Herald: more blog news more often]

 

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Phantom Paid Clicks
Are you paying for phantom clicks?

Pay-Per-Click Perils
Pay-per-click ads are a driving force behind the Internet these days, but not all click-throughs are real. And what if the search engine company says the click-throughs are valid when you think they're phony? That's what [one] reader was left wondering after his Overture Content Match traffic experience[d] an unusual spike.
[Ed Foster's Radio Weblog]

 

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Web Analytics Report Findings, JupiterResearch
Eric Peterson, JupiterResearch analyst and author of Web Analytics Demystified, discusses their recent Web Analytics report.

Findings from our recent look at the Web Analytics market: Part I

As some of you already know we recently published a vision report on Web measurement, Web Analytics: Staffing, Spending and Vendor Selection. This report was built around a handful of executive interviews and a consumer survey we ran earlier this year. While the report itself is getting play via vendors who are well positioned in our market constellation (see below), a number of interesting data points emerge from the consumer survey that I wanted to share.

 

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Email and Search Articles Touching on Web Analytics
Two from MarketingSherpa will move behind payment firewall in 10 days.

2004 Email Metrics Survey: 2293 Marketers Share Real-life Campaign Stats & Plans for 2005.
The most surprising result of MarketingSherpa's Third Annual Email Marketing Metrics Survey is how exceptionally little year over year change in marketing plans and tactics there's been from 2003 (or even 2002.)

RESEARCH DATA: How B-to-B Buyers Use Search (Google Surprise, Plus 28 Tables & Charts)
Although MarketingSherpa has published reams of Case Studies and research data on how B-to-B marketers use search campaigns to reach prospects, until today there wasn't really any useful information from the other side of the search marketing equation ... how business purchasers use search engines to look for your products and services.

 

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Web Site Analytics Go Cross-Channel
Forrester report on best practices.

Web Site Analytics Go Cross-Channel: Applying Clickstream Analytics To Multichannel Scenarios. Nearly two-thirds of North American consumers cross channels when they shop, researching online then purchasing offline in a store or over the phone. Most firms struggle to track these customers, but a few leaders are making headway by realizing that their Web site analytics tools hold the key to understanding when and how these customers accomplish their goals via the Web, email, the phone, and at retail stores and kiosks. $349.00, 4 pages. [Forrester Research]

 

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MarketingSherpa Case Study on Landing Page Testing
Another article headed for the payment firewall.

Testing Landing Pages for Search Ad vs Banner Clicks Way back in 2003, NextStudent's marketing team tested six different landing pages to arrive at their control for online ads promoting their student loan consolidation services. [MarketingSherpa]

 

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MarketingSherpa Interviews Victoria's Secret Direct
Article slips behind the payment firewall soon. Read it now...

Victoria's Secret Direct on the Future of Web Analytics -- 3 Steps & Biggest Challenge What's the biggest constraint to metrics evolution? ... staffing is going to continue to be a huge challenge. [MarketingSherpa]

 

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Verizon Metrics Dashboard

CIO: How Verizon Flies by Wire. Every 15 seconds, a new set of charts telling the story of Verizon Communications' performance flash onto a giant LCD screen in CIO Shaygan Kheradpir's office--everything from the percentage of customer calls resolved by voice systems and how many repair trucks are in the field to the resolution of IT systems problems. [Tomalak's Realm]

 

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JupiterResearch Web Analytics Report
Web Analytics: Spending, Staffing, and Vendor Selection

A successful Web site analytics program revolves around proper staffing, vendor selection, and definition of reports required to run businesses. To help site operators maximize return on investment (ROI) in analytics applications and improve quality of Web properties, JupiterResearch examined appropriate staffing levels, characteristics of a good Web site analyst, challenges associated with using analytics reports, and the vendor selection process.

 

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NetIQ Quarterly Results
NetIQ Announces First Quarter Fiscal 2005 Results

First Quarter Product Announcements

• WebTrends launched WebPosition® Gold 3 for End-to-End search engine optimization (SEO). WebPosition Gold 3 optimizes a web site's relevancy, visibility and overall performance with search engines.

First Quarter Product Awards

• WebTrends 7.0 won PC Magazine Editors' Choice Award. WebTrends 7.0 received the coveted 5-Star rating and was recognized as a sophisticated yet easy-to-use solution with immediate payoffs for site managers;
• WebTrends® On Demand was named Best Site Analysis Service by readers of Windows IT Pro;
• WebTrends was named Best Enterprise Analytics Solution by Readers of ClickZ

 

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WebSideStory Releases API
WebSideStory Gets Closer to Partners

Hosted Web analytics provider WebSideStory ... unveiled a new partner platform and API suite that lets other developers of digital marketing tools, such as e-mail service providers or content management companies, integrate more closely with WebSideStory's HBX Web analytics. [ClickZ]

 

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WebSideStory Quarterly Results
WebSideStory Reports Fourth Profitable Quarter. The hosted Web analytics provider grew total revenues by 41 percent. [ClickZ News]

The company signed 70 new enterprise customers during the quarter, bringing the total number above 600. Willardson said that one-third of revenue growth came from existing customers, while the rest came from new customers.

 

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Useful Marketing Metrics
Five Fundamentals for Useful Marketing Metrics. by Suzanne Taylor [Current Articles from MarketingProfs.com]

Great marketers figure out how to make their customers' lives better, with the goal of attracting lots of profitable and happy customers. To measure how well marketing efforts help build a large and loyal customer base, it's essential to identify and use the metrics that matter most.

 

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Analytics Article in Internet Retailer
Eric Peterson, Jupiter Research analyst and author of Web Analytics Demystified, points to Mary Wagner's analytics article "Site Sleuths: The new breed of analytics digs into problems that hide below the surface" in the current issue of Internet Retailer.

Mary Wagner wrote a nice piece about using analytics to identify hidden opportunities ("Site Sleuths") that draws on information from WebTrends, WebSideStory, Omniture and Coremetrics... [Eric Peterson]

 

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