MarketingVox came out with this article recently talking about Google introducing demographic bidding to AdWords.  I’m not sure why this is making headlines now since Google actually made this announcement a couple years ago.

MSN Has Been Doing This
Even when MSN first introduced their demographic targeting feature 1-2 years ago (when they thought it would separate them from Google and pull people in to spend more) I thought it would be just a restriction on the amount of traffic received for some PPC campaigns.  Also, since some of the methods in which the engines gather this demographic data, it may not be 100% accurate (think of how many people fill out inaccurate information for MSN passports).

Google May Have Better Info.
However, I believe Google is pulling their demographic data from a panel, and they’re only using this targeting feature for the content network right now.  This may help make the content network a bit more useable by being able to further select the type of searchers being targeted.  The Google content network is notorious for not providing conversion-rich traffic since it’s basically allowing anyone with a website to display Google ads based on the content of their pages.

This is certainly not a silver bullet for PPC campaign success but another way to further partition the mysterious content network traffic.

Important Caveat
Since the basis of search marketing is the use of keywords to target consumers, any further segregating of potential searchers may just restrict the amount of traffic and number of leads/sales a site receives.  If you or your client are in an industry that is absolutely certain of some basic demographic information then it might be worth using…but in many cases the keywords being used to target are enough to qualify a visitor.

Side Note: Neat Demographic Tool
Speaking of demographic information…this may be more anecdotal than something to base any substantial conclusions on but MSN has a neat tool that shows basic demographic information for either a search query or URL.  Just to test it out I did some obvious searches like AARP.com vs. Facebook.com with decent results.

http://adlab.msn.com/DPUI/DPUI.aspx
-Brian Renner

Okay, so no blog posts for a week…had to manually rebuild my database with no previous database experience.

Somehow someone got in my database and posted something that made the entire site not load.  I’m going to install one of the following two database backup tools…not sure which one yet.

Databse Backup
Database Manager

If you have a Wordpress blog, backup your database regularly!!!

-Brian Renner

The process for beginning keyword research and which tools one uses will differ between SEO and PPC research.

PPC keyword research is a “everything under the sun” approach in which I use a couple of tools, Digital Point’s free keyword suggestion tool to get some ideas of variations, then the Google AdWords keyword tool to build an expansive list based on the initial Digital Point list. Some Digital Point keyword phrases must be taken with a grain of salt though since they pull one column from Wordtracker and the other from Overture. Sometimes when the Wordtracker column doesn’t show up for whatever reason then the Overture column has to be used. Wordtracker has their free version of the keyword tool, but their paid version is worth testing out for a very comprehensive keyword building platform.

The problem with Overture is that sometimes with low volume phrases they’ll begin to alphabetize the phrases so “sushi restaurants in scottsdale” would appear as “in restaurants scottsdale sushi.” Google’s lack of search counts isn’t much an issue with PPC since you want to have as long a keyword list as possible.

There are some further strategies I use to expand even more upon the keyword list from there to take into account keywords that don’t have enough search volume to appear in Google’s tool. I’m covering this in a PPC best practices presentation I’m working on. One other tool that is still only available by MSN beta invite is the AdSage tool. This was introduced to me a few months ago by a very wise person, Jori Waterman. She showed me a demo and this tool is amazing at how it shows past keyword search data, estimates for future data, organizes your keywords by category…and all within Excel (requires 2007) which can then be easily copied and pasted wherever you need it.

For SEO keyword research it’s crucial to see the search volume as well as competitive information for the keywords you’re selecting to target since you can’t target the 5,000 or so keywords that might be in the PPC campaign. This is where a tool that has general keyword counts will work best. I personally like the Digital Point tool for a very quick assessment of how much search volume is available. Any time forecasting comes into play then it’s best just to plug everything in the Google estimator for a ballpark figure.

-Brian Renner

There are arguments both for and against bidding on one’s own branded terms. Some say it cannibalizes your natural result traffic, others say there’s an incremental lift in traffic. Here are a few reasons why it’s a good idea to bid on one’s own branded terms:

• Branded terms convert much better than generic terms:
  • Anyone familiar with the buying cycle will find this obvious. General terms are typically searched for by a consumer during the initial awareness and research phases. Once a consumer decides on a specific product or brand then that’s where being visible for ones own brand becomes important.
  • Imagine if someone discovered your brand through a generic search during their research phase, then came back on a branded search only to find a better offer from a competitor…you’ve lost that sale.
• Better positioning:
  • Your natural listing can appear to be fourth on a page that has sponsored listings taking the top three positions (Google allows up to three sponsored listings to be above the natural results based on the quality score of those pages)
• Perception of your brand is strengthened when appearing more than once (see pages 5 and 6 of attached PDF):
  • With supplemental results (your site appearing more than once in the natural results) there’s a chance of appearing up to three times at the top of the page as opposed to twice or just once
  • This is especially important given the visual map shown below which shows where this particular set of test participants (In a study performed by Enquiro) looked on a search results page. Notice the “golden triangle” as they refer to it…since the top three spots on the page (whether paid ads or natural results) received the vast majority of “eye time.”

• Perception of your brand is weakened if not bidding (“The Brand Lift of Search”):
  • Not appearing for one’s own branded terms allows your competitors to capitalize on your brand by putting themselves in front of your potential customers. This is also why bidding on one’s own competitors usually results in a higher conversion rate when compared to general terms.
• Make it more expensive for competitors to bid on your brand:
  • Bidding on one’s own branded terms makes it more expensive for anyone else to bid on those same keywords since your quality score will be very high
• This results in VERY CHEAP TRAFFIC!
  • Branded traffic is usually the cheapest traffic one can buy since Google rewards relevant ads with a lower Cost Per Click…and what can be more relevant than one’s own branded terms!
• Incremental lift in traffic
  • Results may vary with regards to how much additional traffic a site receives by having pay per click ads up versus how much natural ranking traffic is being cannibalized by those PPC ads. There are many factors such as existing natural rankings, what industry you’re in and how much competition there is for branded terms that have an effect on how much incremental traffic there is.
• Ability to control messaging
  • This can be good when a need for damage control arises. If there’s ever bad press about your brand, PPC ads allow the opportunity to rebut and place messaging in front of those searching on your brand.
• Ability to test
  • One of the hardest things to do when testing different ad copy or landing pages is getting a statistically relevant number of conversions to be able to draw solid conclusions regarding the variables of the test
  • For brands that have a strong presence and decent amount of traffic, this provides an excellent platform for testing purposes

Here are some additional resources and varying explanations:

Omniture Article (Omniture is a leading tracking software company)
http://www.omniture.com/resources/articles/testing/buying_your_brand_on_search_up

Blog Post
http://ppc-outpost.blogspot.com/2007/05/bidding-on-branded-terms-why-youll-lose.html

Google’s “The Brand Lift of Search” Article
http://www.garance.fr/documents/the-brand-lift-search.pdf

Hopefully this will help you decide whether or not to bid on your own branded terms.

-Brian Renner

If you use a “prefix/suffix” approach to building keyword lists, such as when you’re adding a geo-modifier, then you’ll find this tool very useful.

Take a list of keywords such as “car rental, truck rental, etc.” and combine them with “las vegas, miami, phoenix” for a geo-targeted list of terms.

Keyword Combiner Tool