The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
May 2009, Volume 8, Issue 7

Paid Search: 3 Tips to Make Your Marketing Dollar Go Further

By Cara Beaudette, Client Services Manager, iProspect

There's no getting around it - this down economy has definitely had an impact on online marketing programs. In fact, a recent Hitwise study indicates that paid search spending has decreased across the retail industry. To remain competitive, marketers need to stretch their marketing dollar further. A good place to start is by capitalizing on your existing data.

Use what you've got:
Leveraging the data at your disposal can help you gain efficiencies across your campaigns. In essence, the data will allow you to take the learnings of one campaign to improve another. For example, mining your paid search data might reveal an interesting trend that you could leverage in a completely different marketing channel.

In addition, your existing data can also assist you in maximizing your marketing investment in a more direct way: thoroughly mining the data will save you the expense of running new tests for which you may not the have the budget.

Taking action:
Ultimately, tapping into your existing data should help you stretch your marketing dollar further. Below are three tips that can help you do exactly that:

Review shipping thresholds:
Shipping costs are important to online consumers. Forrester's "Trends 2009 US Online Retail" survey states that 58% of respondents indicate that shipping prices often deter them from buying online. To understand how shipping rates are impacting your sales, first examine whether your click through rate fluctuates depending upon the shipping rate that you are including in your PPC ad copy. Identifying when click thru rates drop should help you determine what the shipping offer should be, if any, during the summer months and into the fall.

Promote top products with display:
Display advertising is a potent marketing channel today. For example, a client of mine increased their click through rate by 10% by promoting their top selling products in display. In addition, iProspect's recent study revealed that 52% of searchers respond to display advertising in some way. Considering that, marketers would be wise to identify their top selling products and promote them in display advertising, or otherwise risk missing out on some prime marketing "real estate."

Leverage ad copy in email:
Users who click through your paid search ads have demonstrated an interest in your offering. Given that, marketers should reuse this information to create the perfect email subject lines. To do so, first find out which of your paid search ads have the highest click through rate. Once you have clarity on this, reuse the top performing titles and descriptions for your email efforts. You can also use this information for your Yahoo! Paid Inclusion titles and descriptions.

As you try to accomplish more with less during these challenging economic times, be sure to tap into the data you have already been collecting, and leverage it for learnings that you can apply across your various marketing initiatives. Doing so will not only help you stretch your marketing dollar further, but it will also help you gain efficiencies in your campaigns.

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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: May 2009, Volume 8, Issue 7

Paid Search: 3 Tips to Make Your Marketing Dollar Go Further

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
May 2009, Volume 8, Issue 7