… To Run Your SEM Campaign

Since we just introduced our new Yield Web Marketing Suite for Agencies, I thought it might be helpful to cover how to choose the right search engine marketing (SEM) agency for your business. Finding and interviewing agencies can be difficult and time-consuming, especially if you haven’t done this process before. But it doesn’t have to be.

Here are my five steps for finding the right SEM agency.  (Tip-of-the-hat to David Rodnitzky at Blogation and Mike Nierengarten at SEMpdx for their “choosing an SEM agency” tips.)

Step #1: Identify your SEM agency needs.

Do you want the agency to oversee SEO, PPC or both?

Will you want them to develop content based on the recommendations they give you?

Do you want them to do everything for you and just send you reports every month – or do you want a more collaborative relationship where you review reports, ask questions and make recommendations?

Are you willing to commit to a months- or year-long relationship or are you looking for month-to-month?

Do you want a big agency or a boutique one?

Does the agency need to be local or is across the country ok?

And finally, what is your ad spend and budget?

Step #2: Develop a list of potential agencies.

You can find potential agencies by asking other business owners, visiting SEM discussion boards, and attending industry conferences such as Search Engine Strategies or SMX. You can check out the AAAA’s website or check out SEMPO for resources.  Try subscribing to the MediaPost Search Insights email newsletter, where there’s always excellent information and comments from folks working in the field.  And you can also find them via search engines and by calling our office – we work with a number of SEM agencies and can recommend one or two to you.

Step #3: Research the agencies.

I highly recommend that you visit each agency’s site to confirm that the agency satisfies the criteria you established in Step One. You’ll also want to determine if the agency’s site is optimized (especially if they selling SEO services). You’d be surprised at how many SEM agencies fall flat when it comes to their own SEO.

Don’t forget to look for online reviews, too, on Yelp, Google and other sites. You can also use LinkedIn to search for agency profiles – these profiles will also list the names of employees (if they have a LinkedIn profile). Look for Recommendations, connections, and if the agency answers Questions or if it runs an active LinkedIn Group.

Step #4: Research the agencies’ clients.

I also recommend that you look at agencies’ client lists (usually available on the agency website) and then visit their clients’ sites. Are they optimized or not? Do their PPC ads appear when you do a search? You can even call these clients yourself and get a run-down on how they work with the agency and any results the company has realized.

Your goal with these last two steps is to cull your list down to three-to-five agencies.

Step #5: Call the agencies on your short list – and ask lots of questions!

The agency will ask you questions (which you’ll be prepared for due to your work in Step #1) — in turn, you’ll want to ask the following:

Who will do the work? Does the agency farm out work to freelancers and sub-contractors (either in the U.S. or overseas) or is all work completed in-house?

What percentage of the ad spend will you pay?

How will the agency provide reports and what information do these reports contain? Will you receive comprehensive dashboards each month and will someone from the company go over the data with you so that you understand it? Or, will you get cryptic reports via email with no analysis? Be sure to ask for sample reports.

Will they develop new content for you if necessary? Often agencies recommend that a client develop new content or landing pages in response to new keywords or campaigns. If they don’t have in-house content developers, whom do they use as content creators? Will the agency need to work with your Web designer to ensure new content is designed and uploaded to your site?

Does the agency specialize in a specific vertical? Some agencies specialize in just B2B or B2C while others combine both.

What is the length of the contract? If you’re unhappy with the work being performed, is there a way out of the contract? Does the agency guarantee its work? (Remember, no one can guarantee you top listings in any search engine, but you should see improved results – and increased sales – over time.)

What happens if you cancel? Will the agency charge you for “data transfer” or “transition costs?” Will you have access to your PPC or SEO campaign once you do cancel? Is this spelled out in the contract?

What results does the agency get for its clients? Don’t settle for “we get top results for all of our clients.” Ask for three to five client names and then call them. Don’t shirk this step!

Do you use SEM automation tools? Many agencies are now using automation tools, such as Yield’s Web Marketing Suite for Agencies, to help them cost-effectively manage their clients’ SEM campaigns. These tools are fine – but do ask if you have access to the tool so that you can see for yourself what’s going on with your account.

Finding a good SEM agency that fits all of your specifications can be time-consuming, but spending the time to perform due diligence will provide you with tremendous peace of mind down the road.

If you have any questions when looking for an SEM agency, please do call!  Someone here at Yield will be happy to answer your questions. And if you’re an agency and would like to add to your suite of services, consider  our Web Marketing Suite for Agencies. It allows you to offer a full range of SEM services without adding headcount. Sign up for a live demo – and see how Yield can save you time, money, and resources.

…Which is Why We’re in New York

Even though we are headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, we are making our first trip east to exhibit at ad:tech New York 2009, with very good reason. The nightlife? The food? The fashion? While New York certainly has a lot to offer–the three months I lived there, I think I slept for about 2 hours total–it is also one of the epicenters of advertising activity. Sure, Madison Avenue is renowned. However, in this digital media age, there are tons of interactive agencies successfully helping advertisers get online and leverage search engine marketing to attract and acquire customers.

So, what could be a better location to launch our agency offering, the Yield Web Marketing Suite for Agencies. We’ve been working on this product for over a year, ensuring that it not only allows our agency customers to easily manage paid search campaigns on behalf of their clients, it allows them to also expand their services to include search engine optimization (SEO) and landing page optimization (LPO). And, all these capabilities are integrated into one easy-to-use system, reducing training costs and improving the effectiveness of agency staffers. This new offering leverages many of the capabilities of our charter product, but it also includes an integrated client dashboard, agency reporting, automated client on-boarding, agency co-branding and a number of other features.

We architected this product in response to great feedback from our agency clients and built an offering that more closely meets their specific needs. They asked for a solution that allowed them to serve more clients with more capabilities while generating better results. We definitely delivered. For agencies interested in learning more, either drop by our ad:tech booth (#1515) or send us an email at sales@yieldsoftware.com and we’d be happy to give you a personalized demonstration.

As we were hearing great input from our agency customers, many of our business customers commented that they find the Yield Web Marketing Suite valuable, but have zero bandwidth to even get started. As a result, we are simultaneously announcing the launch of a series of service offerings to enable businesses to get a one-time JumpStart to begin taking advantage of the automated capabilities of our product; or leverage our Managed Services Experts for ongoing management of campaigns set up on the Yield Web Marketing Suite.

So, whether you’re an agency or a business, looking for a self-service application or a consultative partner, we have just the right solution for you. Check out the Yield Web Marketing Suite and Yield Web Marketing Suite for Agencies today!

Break Down SEM Silos

Search engine marketing (SEM) agencies typically fall into two camps: specializing in search engine optimization (SEO) to the exclusion of all else or focusing exclusively on pay-per-click (PPC) while shunning SEO altogether.

Hence, entrenched SEM silos have become the norm and businesses end up working a the traditional ad agency for “outbound” marketing activities (print and radio/TV advertising, direct mail), an SEO agency, and/or a PPC agency.

The problem with this scenario is three-fold:

First, companies end up overlapping their efforts.

Second, little integration exists between traditional marketing and SEM (and online versus offline).

Third, the ability to see a comprehensive view of the marketing “big picture” is often severely compromised.

The SEM silo within companies occurred naturally, according to search marketing specialist Marta Turek. In an objective and insightful essay, “Breaking the Search Marketing Silo,” on her SEM Street Cred blog, Marta points out that while traditional marketing and sales have always been at odds with each other, at least they have a relationship. Search marketing, on the other hand, “is completely out of the loop. Search marketing and traditional marketing efforts are run by different departments and different people that barely know of the others’ existence.”

And, search’s “image” problem also creates a disconnect, which leads to marketing silos. This is due to how traditional agencies define “creative.” According to Matt Spiegel in a Search Engine Watch article, “Search Engines, Silos, and SES Solutions,” those in marketing and advertising get “their creative juices flowing from an image that makes them stop in awe.”

Search, on the other hand – whether organic or PPC – is just not seen as sexy. (When was the last time an SEM agency won an award for “best looking text ad”? Never!) When it comes to search, says Matt, the term “creativity” needs to encompass “the idea of purchasing keywords connected to your Super Bowl ads, or capitalizing on a competitor’s missed opportunity, or using search to create buzz months before your product is launched.”

So, if you’re a traditional ad agency, or an SEM agency with one specialty, how do you help your clients’ overcome the silos and disconnects inherent in their marketing, advertising and sales departments – without adding expensive headcount or sending your team back to school?

Simply, consider software applications that automate critical functions and that give you the “big picture” data you need to help your clients make informed decisions that increase revenues.

One reason we developed the Yield Web Marketing Suite is because we saw that many businesses focused only on Google AdWords, or only on SEO, but failed to apply both SEO and PPC across all three major search engines – and thus were missing huge opportunities to increase conversions and sales.

On top of that, because smaller businesses in particular often feel they can’t afford the services of agencies, they try to manage their search campaigns themselves – resulting in weak strategy, low conversions, and wasted money.

Even if you decide to use technologies other than ours, which integrates PPC, SEO and landing page optimization into a single, automated system, there are a variety of point solutions out there that agencies can pull together toward greater automation of the full SEM remit.  What’s critical here is helping agency clients to manage their total SEM effort to drive the best possible traffic to their sites and ensure the highest conversion rates.

To see how Yield Software can help your agency add value to your clients’ campaigns, give me a call at (877) 943-5379. I’ll be happy to walk you through a demo and get you up and running with our no obligation, 30-day trial.

Integrated “Cloud” Applications and Efficiency

Though Joni Mitchell’s famous song “Clouds” may lead you to conclude that the whole “cloud computing” phenomenon is just some airy concept (”I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now / from win and lose / and still somehow / it’s clouds illusions I recall / I really don’t know clouds at all”), the fact is, these time-saving, efficiency-enhancing technologies can help you to reduce costs, increase revenues and improve your agency’s margins.

In an interesting post on his IT Enquirer blog, Erik Vlietinck writes about how the “human factors” at a European ad agency led it to lose considerable time and money. Falling into the trap of acting as the “middleman,” the agency dealt with the client and two outside copywriters and caved in to the client’s insistence on weekly face-to-face meetings.

These meetings were often held to assign repeat work assignments and weren’t really necessary. Even worse, each party used different software and technology platforms – from Mac and Pages to an outdated version of WordPerfect on a PC – impeding work flow and slowing productivity.

Though we serve a growing roster of agencies, we can’t advise you on how to handle client expectations; however, we can offer insights around how to improve productivity. Like many companies, you may be stuck with legacy software applications – as are your clients. (We’ve found, for example, that many small businesses have remained with Windows® XP due to the well-publicized problems of the Vista operating system – and many are still using old versions of Microsoft® Office, not to mention ancient versions of Internet Explorer.)

Thankfully, many new Internet-based applications exist that aid collaboration and improve productivity. These applications work because they’re not platform-specific, and they can be accessed from any computer anywhere in the world – enabling you to hold a video conference with far-flung clients while sitting in your fuzzy slippers at your kitchen table at 6:00 AM.

Here then, are some of our favorite collaboration tools:

1. Basecamp
Developed by 37Signals, Basecamp is project management made easy. Used by agencies of all types – including Web design, branding, SEM, graphic design, marketing, advertising, and freelancers – Basecamp allows you to easily manage projects and collaborate with customers, partners, and third-party vendors. Best of all, Basecamp eliminates the back and forth emailing as it keeps all discussions in one place, and it allows you to upload any type of document for easy sharing as well as tracking project time. Pricing is based on the number of projects you manage.

2. WebEx
With this application, you can reduce or eliminate expensive face-to-face meetings while sharing information in real time. What we like about WebEx is that everyone sees the same computer screen – making it easy to present ad campaign concepts, data, and other information to clients. As with Basecamp, anyone can access WebEx from any computer – including a smart phone.  We’ve also used GoToMeeting, which is a terrific alternative to WebEx and which offers competitive pricing.

3. Google Docs
We use Google Docs here at Yield Software to share information company-wide and with folks like consultants. Google Docs lets you create documents and spreadsheets, upload them, and then invite people to share and edit. Like Basecamp, Google Docs eliminates the back-and-forth emailing. As with most Google products, Google Docs is free.

4. Skype

Want to do video conferencing at no cost? Or how about secure chat?  Skype is how you do it. Although each member on your team will need to download the software and set up an account, which means Skype isn’t technically a “cloud application,” the download process takes literally less than a minute. You’ll also need a webcam and microphone, which most computers and laptops now have built-in – but once you’re up and running, you’ll wonder how you did without it. What we love about Skype is that Skype-to-Skype calls are free to anyplace on the globe – including video calls – and the call / video quality is awesome.  And, the newest version includes a screen-sharing feature so you’re able to show your co-conferees what you’re referring to on your own desktop.

5. Team Apart

We haven’t used this service, but have heard good things about it. Team Apart combines video, white boarding, and a real-time note pad (to record meeting notes) in one simple Internet-based interface – and it’s free. Each member of your team will need the latest version of Flash, a headset with microphone, and a webcam. The product is still in beta, but check it out!

Another way to improve productivity with regard to your clients’ search marketing campaigns (small plug) is to use our own cloud app, the Yield Web Marketing Suite. Easily track natural search, PPC and landing page optimization – without having to tediously manage the daily minutiae associated with search engine marketing.  If you’re already on the Yield Web Marketing Suite, be sure to check your account dashboard to see that your clients are “100 percent” set up — that is, that you’re using all available modules on the platform to fully optimize your clients’ search marketing effort.

For instance, many focus on optimizing both paid and natural search (SEO) on behalf of their clients, but fail to focus on optimizing a client’s landing pages, which is a mistake.  The experiment set-up wizard makes creating multiple versions of a standard landing page fast and easy, and the multivariate testing software displays the multiple versions of the page to visitors as they arrive.  The best performing page or pages in the experiment get served with increasing frequency as the experiments continues – meaning your clients’ campaigns are optimized to continually improve conversions in real-time without having to manually create new content or pages for testing purposes, or having to wait until the conclusion of an experiment to begin seeing the benefits of the result.

Bottom line: Don’t overlook The Cloud.

…or Risk Getting Whacked by Your Clients

In an August post written for the Small Agency Diary blog, Tom Martin talks about how ad agencies have neglected to act in their clients’ best interests. Writes Martin:

We’ve slacked off. We don’t invest nearly enough in our people and resources to ensure we are actually ahead of our clients and in a position to look around the corner and see what’s coming. We have a serious talent gap in our senior-management ranks, and we’ve (by and large) forfeited sound strategy in favor of cheap production tricks and cute one-liners that will line our shelves with awards but not necessarily our clients’ shelves with dollar bills.

To address these issues, writes Martin, agencies can take a cue from The Mob, specifically the Consigliere. For those of you not hip to Mafia speak, the Consigliere is the person the Mob boss turns to for insight and advice before making any big decisions. Most importantly, the Consigliere is the only person who can challenge the boss – and not get whacked at the knees with a baseball bat for doing so.

So how can you act as your clients’ Consigliere? You can begin by educating yourself and your agency about how the Internet and the Link Economy have changed business as we know it.

According to global research conducted by IBM, the “next five years will hold more change for the advertising industry than the previous 50 did.” And part of this huge shift is how buyers find products and services. The survey authors noted that of the more than 2,400 consumers and 80 advertising experts surveyed, most find their information online:

Consumers are increasingly in control of how they view, interact with and filter advertising in a multichannel world as they continue to shift their attention away from linear TV and adopt ad-skipping, sharing and rating tools. Survey results suggest personal PC time now rivals TV time.

Because buyers’ attention has shifted to the Internet, it’s crucial that you push your clients to use new media tactics in order to deliver the results they want. This means that you may have to tell them they need an updated, professionally designed, optimized for search engines website. Or that they need to consider social media because their customers are hanging out on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube – instead of reading the paper or watching TV.

Giving this type of advice might mean you’ll have to redesign and optimize your own agency’s website in order to be a good example to your clients. As social media guru David Meerman Scott points out in his Web Ink Now blog post, “Advertising agency websites: Digital Masterbation,” agency websites are “light on compelling content” and instead rely on Flash intros and black-and-white photos of agency personnel with funky stuff in the background in order to show that they’re “cool.”

However, none of this cool stuff puts any dollars in your clients’ pockets – or yours, either, to be honest.

If you want to change this scenario, get on board with the whole “Internet thang.” Learn about search engine optimization and pay-per-click and how you can use both to generate Internet-based leads for your agency. Then use what you learn and apply it to your clients’ marketing objectives.

Small pitch: to get you started, consider the Yield Web Marketing Suite. We make search marketing easy by automating many of the time-consuming tasks associated with SEO, PPC and landing page optimization (the three pillars of search engine marketing).  Our all-in-one approach means you’re able to manage your clients’ SEM campaigns efficiently and effectively.  For instance, with a quick look at the system’s dashboards and reports you’ll know in an instant if the campaigns you manage on behalf of your clients are either hitting or missing the mark, enabling you to make strategy or tactical changes on a dime – something you just can’t do with more traditional advertising campaigns.

As more and more traditional ad agencies (and even public relations firms) are beginning to address how best to serve their clients’ emerging marketing needs, it’s critical that you consider the enabling technologies, strategies and tactics that will enable you to deliver the best possible advice and guidance.  If you don’t, you risk being just one more wiseguy who gets whacked for failing to get the job done.