Search Engine Marketing Consulting

We help our clients organise their online seach marketing initiatives but do so from an overall online performance perspective. In our view it makes no sense throwing dollars at driving relatively expensive traffic through pay-per-click campaigns or an SEO overhaul if those visitors end up on a property that chases them away or is not optimised to convert visitors into what we set out to achieve.

It is also absolutely critical that you evaluate the cost of your pay-per-click keywords against the returns and conversions they generate. Unfortunately the success of many pay-per-click campaigns is only expressed in number of clicks and seldom in return-per-click. That is also what is to be expected as most SEM companies are very specialised in their vertical but often have no view on the entire conversion path that the visitors they send are supposed to follow once they arrive on your properties. In our view it is absolutely essential to evaluate this as it is the only way to determine what the maximum bid price should be for each and every keyword.

We offer pragmatic guidance and consult you on how to (re)organise your investments and assist in finding the best partners for your search engine marketing requirements or in assessing the partners you may currently be using. Grid14 hands you a perspective on how you should select SEO/SEM partners and hands you the right tools and knowledge to evaluate your search campaigns from a return-on-investment point of view.

"So, I preach to my prospects and clients that they should be focused on analytics and measurement of SEO much like they would (try to) measure any form of marketing effort. Is the SEO program generating qualified traffic to the site? Is the SEO effort generating phone calls (yes, you can track this)? Is the SEO effort delivering a solid ROI (for what I'm spending on these efforts, either in internal resources or outsourcing)?"

Mark Jackson, Search Engine Watch

What is search engine marketing?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a generic term for the set of online marketing techniques that enable your website to become more visible on the web and attract relevant traffic.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) and content
Articles, tools and link bait
Link building strategy
Pay-per-click advertising
Social media marketing
Paid Inclusion into directories and websites

Increased (relevant) website traffic

By ascertaining the appropriate mix of SEM techniques, you will see a difference in the amount of relevant traffic your website attracts and the profile you have in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for specified keywords and key phrases. Content optimisation is a part of that, as is online promotional activity.

That said, it is essential to ascertain what it is you want from your website and the visitors you attract. From there you can profile potential customers and focus on the way they may interact with the web. This way, any technique you employ will be more focused to your target audience.

The changing face of search...

Search on the Internet is changing. As we all clamber to be indexed by the search engines it has not only harder to compete in the page rankings (SERPs), but also to get found generally for generic search phrases.

That's why a more rounded approach is required to attract relevant traffic through sources other than search engines. The more varied the approach of your online marketing, with your targeted and consistent message, the more likely your website will work harder for you in terms of delivering on key performance indicators.

Pay per click advertising

Using pay per click (PPC) and pay per action (PPA), you can attract relevant traffic to your website, quickly.

Google Adwords - search and content networks
Yahoo Search Marketing - search and content networks
Microsoft AdCenter
Facebook, Bebo, MySpace Social advertising

Creating effective PPC campaigns

The success of advertising using pay per click is much more than simply creating an advert and choosing some generic keywords. This is a sure fire route to wasting your advertising budget by paying high amounts of money (per click) for visitors to your website who aren't even interested in your products and services.

You should create PPC campaigns using tried and tested methods to maximise your budget, attracting only relevant traffic - people who are more likely to buy / sign-up or contact you, when they get to your online properties.

Quality, not quantity

Rather than focus on quantity of paid traffic, you should take a more focussed route with PPC to attract specific people by using specific keywords, specific adverts and specific landing pages.

This maximises the efficiency of search engine quality score systems, reducing the amount your advert costs, allowing for more 'shows' of your advert at the right time.

Establish Goals of your pay per click campaign
Establish initial keywords through research
Break down your campaign into specific sales messages
Create variants of advert text
Create advert relevant landing pages
Test, change, test, change, test, change...

Grid14 Services

Articles

How to measure offline campaigns in Analytics?
Most web site analytic tools and Google Analytics in particular present a pretty impressive picture on how your online marketing campaigns are performing. read more...

How to Throw Money Away with Adwords
In New Zealand thousands of dollars are wasted on Adwords every hour of every day. read more...