BUS572-5 AdWords Reports

After watching more on AdWords through Google, I have found that there are several ways to analyzing our data.  Many sources have shared that there are ways to geographically modify our ads.  Others have shared that we are able to fully fund a campaign or ad during certain hours and fund less in hours of lower traffic, thus reducing the likelihood of spending more on our ad campaigns that we intended.

One of the greater takeaways from the videos found here is that we will need time to make decisions.  Data is not easily deciphered through a couple or few days of data.  Because the GOMC is only a three week commitment, we will need to make decisions based on little data.  This, of course, assumes that we will have data to analyze.  I will look forward to the end of the first week of running the campaign as this will allow us to determine what part of the week will be more beneficial to our campaigns.  We'll also be able to determine how to modify funding, the timing of the display, perhaps modify the wording of the overall ads and compare our local traffic and national traffic.

Unfortunately, because of the short time we have left, we are forced to make some "preliminary" observations based on a couple of day's data - something the videos stated would be of little benefit.  But the data that is observed will allow us to see our ads as we search for different keywords we created.  We'll be able to test our own assumptions without clicking on our own ad of course.  We wouldn't want to use up our limited funding by clicking on the ads ourselves.  I mostly look forward to seeing how and what will need changed over the next two to three weeks.  Our group will need to take some detailed notes through this process to accurately display our findings towards the end.

BUS572-4 Cookies and Ad Strtegies

This week, I learned more about cookies on websites that I thought was possible.  Though I don't have a full understanding of it, I believe that there is good use for them when it comes to tracking customers stats as far as where they came from, how long they were on your site, did they leave, did the customer stall out on a page, did they get led to a desired location, and things of that nature.

  I can also see a problem with them.  Knowing that a little bit of code can capture A LOT of information, this can be used to a disadvantage.  I'm not keen on the idea of what a cookie can do when it comes to getting my personal information.  These cookies do exist and they are not intended for good.  I'd like to know - if a cookie can track what I do, can a cookie be tracked for what it does?  Can we capture the information that a malicious cookie obtains to track down the owner of that cookie?  If so, will the person it leads to be the creator who intended the cookie to do bad?

I also learned that given a good strategy and game plan, Google Adwords and Google Display Network can be used to run entire campaigns.  This can be used to regenerate interest in an old product, breath life into a failing product line or even direct people's attention to a noteworthy cause.  Again, this could be something that I could read more on for next week, but I'd like to know just how well this type of strategy could fit into what we want to do.  We want more than anything to get a product name out for people to find The Thrifty Wargamer.  Will this strategy fit with our goals?  That's what will need to be researched.  I believe it can, just not sure how or what the cost related to the idea would be.  Wow, there is so much to learn and so little time in a class that meets every other week in a 14 week window.

I think that the skill I learned from our article this week from Ghose and Yang found here is that positioning really does matter, and not like we thought it should.  Businesses, according to the article can be more profitable if their ad is located in the middle of the search page instead of at the top.  This blows away my thinking that we need to have the best and first in everything when really, the middle is where the serious shopper or searcher is going to do business.  This means that a larger percentage of clicks will lead to actions we desire - like purchases.  This could completely change the way we price and move our ad around on a search page.

I look forward next week to relax, read and discover more strategic, and legal, things I can do to better my team's ads.  We should have some feedback this week to do some analysis.  I look forward more to that part of the course than anything.

BUS572-3 Banner Ads and Page Content

Week 3 Blog Report

In the past two weeks, I’m not sure if localization or personalization of a website is a skillset or a concept.  For now, I’ll call it a concept because of the way it can be defined.  Let’s call it an idea.  The idea is to collect personal information on the person’s demographic to personalize the type of information the individual receives through marketing or other means of communication.  With a trend of more people accepting their personal information being used, they in turn will receive more relevant feedback from a website informing them of activities, sales and news from where they are or geared toward their interests.  It is a way to help a person feel more in touch with the pages in which they interact.  Even though this could be a good idea, at what point are we going too far in collecting data on people.  Can this information cause damage to those using a particular website?  If there is an information breach, what will happen to the end user?  Is there a liability and upon whom does it land?  I like the idea, but if I’m going to use it to personalize information delivered to the end user, sort of how Facebook works now, I’m going to want to make sure I cover my bases legally before venturing into something this volatile.

I believe I’ve learned the concept of content being one of the most, if not the most, important part of a website.  Inside I knew this the whole time.  To read it and see how content needs to interact with key phrases we have within our campaign, it really drives it home.  I think one of our most challenging tasks is to make sure that the information we use as content in our blogs and in our ads is to keep it relevant.  We want the search engine to find us.  The research that is needed can be intense.  Knowing how to use the tools is one of the greatest challenges.  I don’t have a good grasp on how these tools work or how our ads will react if we use the criteria we have at the moment.  But content will help drive what we have home with web search engines.  Using keywords and phrases consistent and accurate to what The Thrifty Wargamer is all about is important.  We want people to find the site and to find it without much effort.  We also want our visitors to intend to visit the site.  In other words, we want to stay away from accidental visits.  Traffic should be intentional, and that’s the challenge we have were content can help.  Good content should drive people to the locations we want and get them to do what we want.  So how do we keep content interesting and engaging when we don’t know much about the business of wargaming?  There’s a special language specific to this type of business and society that is unique.  It isn’t something we’re going to be able to pick up in such a short amount of time.  A bit challenge will be to answer this question: How do we to stay relevant and engaging and not know how to speak the language?

I think one of the skills I picked up these last couple of weeks was knowing or learning the differences in the four types of display ads – banner, video, rich media and sponsorship.  I had no idea there were all four types. In fact, I thought that banner and rich media were the same.  Little did I know!  A banner add can look like this.  Simple, right? 

I like that there are several ways to reach a target audience and each of the four have a specific target audience type in mind.  I’d like to learn how to make a display add.  If I’m going to want to drive an idea home or move a customer through an online store or even to the store homepage, I’m going to have to gain a better understanding of this skill.  Who knew rich media was for gamers like me? 

Well, I’ve already alluded to this, but I’d like to see if I could create some banner or other type of display add that will move people from somewhere on the internet to The Thrifty Wargamer website.  It may not be easy now, but I can see this being a lot of fun.  It’s the time that’ll be a killer.  The threat of this goal is also challenged by the direction our class is going.  I’m not really sure if that’s an acceptable goal for the weeks to come given the content our class has in the next half of the semester.  That we will have to wait and see.

BUS572-2

Second Two Week Session

These past two weeks I've learned more about Click Through Rate (CTR).  I've always had a concept of what this was, just not a term to go along with it.  But along with that, I wasn't aware that there was a charge to clicking on a link assuming the link was better positioned by higher paying venders for their keyword search results in search engines.  Truthfully, I may have said that all wrong concerning the keywords and search results, but I think the point is made.  Click Through Rate is the ratio of clicks divided by the number of times the link or button was seen (some resources would say served, but seen is the correct terminology according to our text).  For example: if a search for clothing was to render Target as a vender for the particular clothing being searched, it would be considered an impression (a link to Target's site that was seen).  Once the link is clicked, it is considered a "click" and the click ratio is calculated as clicks divided by impressions. This is important because we, the vender, want to know what success we are having with our ads and can be very important in helping evaluate what keywords are and are not working well. What I want to know is what a good rate is.  Will a good rate differ from business to business?  Does a department store have a lower acceptable click through rate compared to a specific hobby or resource website?  When we are working toward helping The Thrifty Wargamer, should I hope for a 1% click through rate or work toward something over 20% depending on the line of business that is conducted?  Because of its specific nature, I would tend to think it should have a higher CTR and we should strive toward that end.

My initial idea of what a conversion is was not exactly what I expected.  A conversion is what happens when a person visits your website and ultimately meets the goal of what you intended the site to do.  For most, this would be to make a purchase or book a flight or perform a transaction of some type.  I simply thought a conversion was clicking on a website link that got you from a search engine to an actual visit to your site.  That's more like a click or an event that moves a person closer to the desired goal.  Getting to the goal is the conversion.  This is important because those who analyze traffic want to know what happened between the time someone saw the link, visited the site, looked at products, and made a purchase.  There may be more steps in that process, but it's all about how the customer was funneled through the events before the conversion happened, or didn't happen.

If a conversion didn't happen, what happened that prevented the potential customer to pull away?  Where did they go?  At what point did they pull away.  Analysis of these events will help to determine how to make the website more effective.  Should conversions hold more weight than CTRs?  Why or why not.  What makes one more important than another if at all?

Although I have not completely understood every aspect of analysis, mainly because there are so many elements of analysis, this is a skill that I've been able to increase over the past couple of weeks.  We've only begun our initial intent of what we'd like to do and proposal of ideas using Google's resources.  However, even in the preliminary stages, I can see where showing our add at certain times of the day for our client will have more of an effect than others. Because gamers "tend" to have a more late night trend to their activity levels, we believe that running adds after 3 PM and before 2 AM will have a greater return on our efforts than running adds at other times of the day.  Analysis will help bring that out once the ads we have are run. We will also need to see what words and phrases will work better than those with which we initially started.

In the next couple of weeks, I look forward to diving more into the analytical side of things. I don't want to just post something or go through the motions of the course.  I'd like to really take what I've learned, use it to the fullest, and alter what we've done. The issue here is that we only have an add campaign outstanding for three weeks.  A longer period would allow us to really look into the how and why of the success of our ad campaign. When we starting working toward wargaming and miniature figures being the focus of the ads, it'll be interesting how it all comes together and what Google's tools will show as a result of our efforts.  I'm really looking forward to the weeks to come. 

REFERENCES

Stokes, Rob. (2013). eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Online Marketing, v. 1.0.  

     Flat World Knowledge, Inc.

BUS572-1

January 22, 2014

During the first two week session of our eMarketing course at Chatham University, we have learned many concepts.  Of those, the first is the difference between Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  I could have guessed what PPC was if I had a chance to think about it.  But when it comes to SEO, I wouldn't have had a clue that this is what I see and typically look for when I'm clicking on a website.  I certainly don't want to click on those sites in the slightly colored background because they're typically not going to take me where I want to go anyway.  I want the organic results.  The results that remove all or nearly all bias in my search located on the left and typically have no background color to them.  That's almost as shown in the image below from the textbook we are using titled: eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Online Marketing, v. 1.0 AAP by Rob Stokes.  There are some highlights to show the difference between the paid search results and the organic search results.

For a better idea of what I'm referring to, click here.  Knowing the difference between the two is important when advertising because you have the opportunity to use your brain to create a site that appears at the top of the organic list or you can simply pay to have your site listed in the pay search results area.  OK, it's not that cut and dry.  But think of it as a ratio.  Use more brain power to obtain higher organic listings and less financial spending.  Use more spending and obtain a higher paid search result with a little thought used toward creativity.  It's sort of like that.  But my greater concern is if we are really saving money when we use our brain power to dive into the algorithm that search engines use to place sites at the top.  There are a number of man power hours invested into keeping a site at the top of the list of the organic results.  Would it just be easier to pay to have the results show up in the paid section?  And are all people like me when it comes to choosing what I click when results appear?  I'm simply an organic results driven person because I'm just not sure when the paid results will take me.  

On the flip side, there is the Pay Per Click advertising which is keyword based.  This is actually something I have been unable to wrap my arms around completely.  I see where it is very useful.  Typically this is thought to have more relevance to the paid results side of the search engine display.  If so, then there is a lot said to master this keyword or key phrase search that a majority of web browsing individuals use on their initial trip to the web.  The question it brings up is this:  if 80 percent of the people who open a browser begin their journey through a web search engine to look for results, then does PPC have a place when it comes to the organic results?  If so, how much of the organic results are influenced by PPC advertising?  Should we be spending this much time focusing on PPC if we are really only interested in organic results?  First, let’s define PPC as it is mentioned at the techterms.com website.  If you click here, you’ll see that it can include not just textual adds, but banner ads and Flash ads too.  And if we're only paying for actual traffic, then maybe this is a good thing to look into.  So, let’s assume that we have all the answers and are able to use PPC efficiently and effectively.  If that is true, then we’re talking about the ability to maximize profits, conduct accurate cost analysis, perform modifications and changes as circumstances change and always be at or near the top of search results related to what we do.  That's a great goal to have, but have I fully grasped the concept of what PPC is and what it can do?

I'd love to tell you that the thing I've learned was about marketing strategy and the various steps that it takes to create a marketing plan.  However, that is something that has been taught and used for years as I worked with a multibillion dollar non-profit organization that constantly looked to change as our environment changed.  But when you take that concept to the web - that's when we're talking more about holistic strategies.  As Stokes would share in the eMarketing text, holistic strategies "allow companies to make the most of their budget through integrating online and offline activities."  Again, holistic is not a foreign concept to me and usually means ALL aspects of a particular concept.  In this case, we're talking about online and offline.  That's like saying activities that happen when you are awake and when you're asleep.  Outside of those two terms (online and offline or awake and asleep), not a lot of activity happens.  This was helpful because the book that focuses on the eMarketing of business also recognizes the activities that happen away from the online world.  People really do watch TV still, see an advertisement and drive to the store to purchase something from off the shelf.

As we have looked at things from the perspective of the buyer, which typically that's what we've experienced nearly 100% of the time, it's going to be interesting to view marketing from the perspective of the company or corporation.  To see the competition and stay one step ahead.  I look forward to seeing how web searches work from the perspective of the business.  I also want to understand on an intimate level the idea behind AdWords by Google.  I know there are several other search engines out there and all have their little differences from one-another.  What I want is to take the next two weeks and understand how items on the internet react and interact with each other.  I could be wrong, but I think a better understanding of Google's AdWords will help to shed some light on this concept.  I really think that the presentation by Sarah Peduzzi on Search Engine Advertising and AdWords Mechanics in the Mellon Boardroom on Janyary 22, 2014 will go a long way in this learning process.

REFERENCES

Stokes, Rob. (2013). eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Online Marketing, v. 1.0.  Flat World 

     Knowledge, Inc.