Archive for October, 2011

Millions search Facebook every day. Millions search Yahoo! every day. You can optimize for both

Ever see someone share an article on Facebook that looked something like this?

Would you guess that this link leads to a video of a skate contest? Probably not. Not only is there no image to go along with the article, the title is confusing, there’s no description, and the URL doesn’t even give a hint as to what the link is about.

If you’re looking to spread your marketing message across the Web, this is pretty bad form. Anyone searching for “skate contest” videos will likely not see the post or click on it because there’s no description or graphic.

A well-optimized page not only stands a better chance of appearing in Facebook search results, but also in Yahoo! and other search results, providing more chances for visibility and traffic with little effort on your part (beyond optimizing your tags, which we’ll look at in a minute).

The life of a Facebook “Like”

First let’s look at what happens when someone shares or likes your content on Facebook.

1. I enjoy this Article.

1. I click the Facebook “Like” button:

1. This puts the article on my Facebook wall and in some of my friends’ Facebook feeds. Increased visibility for Mashable.

1. Some of my friends see this post and click on it.  increased traffic for Mashable.
2. Some other friends see this post and share it on their walls, pages or in groups right from my post.  Even more (free) increased visibility.

1. My friends who clicked through to read the article on Mashable may click the “Like” button from there. The process starts all over again.  Even more (free) increased visibility.

And the gains don’t end here. Remember those millions of people searching Facebook? Once Facebook knows about the Mashable article, it can show up in Facebook’s search results.  Increased chances for (free) visibility and (free) potential indirect traffic.

But wait! There’s more! Search engines index public content from Facebook, including wall posts. Here is that same article represented several times in search engine results. Even more increased visibility and potential indirect traffic (did I mention it’s also free?).

Peter Zmijewski is the founder and CEO at KeywordSpy. Through Internet Marketing he places his name on great search engine like-GOOGLE who is also called as Innovator, Investor, Internet Marketing Guru and Entrepreneur. For more updates don’t go away, please stay with us.

Topsy, the “real-time search for the social web,” has launched a Google+ post search. Along with that search, Topsy offers trend data for Plus.

Topsy is best known for its Twitter-search capabilities, which ranks all tweets according to the authority of the person tweeting, the rate of re-sharing, and other metrics. A similar tactic is being applied for Google+ search, where users will now be able to search through posts that are ranked algorithmically.

Topsy only displays the public Plus posts. Additionally, for the time being, Topsy’s Google+ post search is an independent website feature. However, the company indicated to Forbes that they had plans to integrate the searches in the future.

For business owners, the real value of Topsy’s service comes from the trend data; you can check out the trending links and videos for plus at a glance. Other tools include the expert search that helps you network and an advanced search that lets you filter out specific words, result types, and post dates.

While we already know that Google+ has an impressively large user-base, Topsy gave further indication of how much public data was spread in an interview with why Topsy deserves your attention. These resources (especially the free ones) make the site a valuable tool for businesses and professionals who want to spread their social reach, including on Google+.

Peter Zmijewski is the founder and CEO at KeywordSpy. Through Internet Marketing he places his name on great search engine like-GOOGLE who is also called as Innovator, Investor, Internet Marketing Guru and Entrepreneur. For more updates don’t go away, please stay with us.

AdWords can be overwhelming to marketers and small business owners. It’s often hard for newcomers to understand their performance. Even the PPC connoisseurs needs to take time now and again to step out of the trenches to analyze where they stand on the AdWords battlefront.

This month, we’ve created the AdWords Grader in response to this very need. If you’re looking to improve your PPC performance (and let’s face it, who isn’t?), consider taking advantage this newly released tool from WordStream.

If you’re looking to improve your PPC performance consider taking advantage this newly released tool from WordStream.

The AdWords Performance Grader grades your AdWords account performance by analyzing several key performance indicators such as Quality Score, Account Activity, Click-Through Ratea, and Impression Share. It then compares your results against those of other AdWords advertisers with similar monthly budgets.

I’m not sure about most people, but there is a part of me that misses getting graded in school. It feels great to get a sense of where you stand. And even when it doesn’t feel so hot getting those Cs, at least you are given a new goal to shoot for. The AdWords Grader can be the affirmation or the kick in the pants you need to get in gear.

Better yet, the AdWords Performance Grader does more than simply asses your AdWords performance, it also gives you direct recommendations on how to improve your score and better your campaign.

Advantages of Using the AdWords Performance Grader

We’ve learned that marketers and small business owners are often desperate to know how they stack up against competitors and are always looking for ways to improve their accounts. They need a PPC audit, but those are usually expensive and time-consuming.

That’s why we made the AdWords Grader—it provides the same benefits of a PPC audit, but it’s free, quick, and easy to use. PPC users are loving the grader because it:

• Is easy to use and understand.

• Provides the same kind of account analysis you’d expect from a consultant or agency.

• Offers actionable insights and competitive intelligence.

• It’s free.

Peter Zmijewski is the founder and CEO at KeywordSpy. Through Internet Marketing he places his name on great search engine like-GOOGLE who is also called as Innovator, Investor, Internet Marketing Guru and Entrepreneur. For more updates don’t go away, please stay with us.

The power and popularity of Facebook as an advertising tool is inarguable. In August, an e marketer showed that 93 percent of the two thirds of marketers currently running social media ad campaigns do so on Facebook.

With more than 800 million active members, Facebook is where the people are; no other network can touch their ability to target and reach consumers yet. Facebook knows this and they’re trying to make their platform as attractive as possible to marketers. Former Googler Sheryl Sandberg is currently heading up a program offering $50 advertising credits to as many as 200,000 small businesses in an effort to get them on board.

While Facebook’s low barrier to entry and free Pages are great for small businesses, display ads can greatly increase a marketer’s reach and expose the brand to new audiences. Bigger companies have the challenge of needing efficient, effective ways to set up and test numerous combinations of target, image and text to find those that resonate well with their market.

We talked to Max Kalehoff and Jordan Franklin at Clickable to see what tips they have to offer marketers trying to build scalable Facebook ads campaigns. Primarily a software company, Clickable also offers consulting, training and campaign management. They’ve been building semi-automatic account management tools for years and just released their Social ActEngine – more on that below.

Connect Ads to the Native Experience

The Challenge: Understanding how Facebook differs from the search ads a company may be used to and adjusting expectations.

Clickable: Keep a tight connection between ads and the native experience inside the Facebook network. We can drive people to your website and track back to campaigns and see which text, images and targets worked best. But the future of advertising on this channel is keeping people within the Facebook ecosystem.

You need to have a tight grasp of the Pages experience and understand what’s happening in your environment. You can send people to your website, but our customers find the most success when they’re keeping the activity and engagement on Facebook. Say you’re a book publisher, we target people who we think will be interested in your book, we get them to your fanpage, they get the first few chapters free, they Like the page so now that they’re a fan, you can promote your next book. It creates this community and this level of engagement and interaction and that’s where the magic happens with Facebook ads.

Get Past the Direct Response Mentality

The Challenge: Executives or decision makers possibly don’t understand that direct response isn’t the only (or most important) metric and sometimes the goal isn’t even to drive sales with the ads, but to build relationships.

Clickable: People on Facebook are there to consume social media and produce social media. We don’t want to show a “Buy This Now” ad, we want them to connect with this brand. Once those people are advocates of the brand, it’s much easier to get them to buy things later on. Now you are able to connect more often without the ad and they actually want to hear from you. There’s a fundamental difference.

At the Same Time, Use Search Ad Principles That Work

The Challenge: Facebook Ads is like chess: it’s easy to learn the rules, but difficult to become very good at the game.

Clickable: Evaluate campaigns regularly, reallocating budget from less effective ads to top performers. Ensure images do not become saturated or stale. Look to tools to automate the activities that take away from your efficiency. Put that time into other areas of growing your business.

In each campaign, ask yourself, what is the target audience? What image do I want to show them? Which ad text best goes with that? What message do I want to share with these people to attract them? You’re going to need to set up a lot of target audiences and test out a lot of combinations of target; image and text that all resonate well within the market you’re trying to reach. Semi-automated or automated tools make this a lot easier and more effective.

Know Your Bottom Line

The Challenge: Having the people and/or systems in place to accurately measure campaigns and components to determine which are truly effective.

Clickable: If you can treat the target, image and ad text as separate entities, it opens a lot of doors as far as split testing. You need to be able to separate and test your data efficiently. Cost per install and cost per fan is measurable. The same methodology we’re using with the Social Act Engine is effective is improving your efficiency. You need to be able to look to the most current data, prioritize, and reallocate as necessary. You know you need to be in the space, but it has to be treated as other marketing channels; you must know your costs and how effective your efforts are.

Peter Zmijewski is the founder and CEO at KeywordSpy. Through Internet Marketing he places his name on great search engine like-GOOGLE who is also called as Innovator, Investor, Internet Marketing Guru and Entrepreneur. For more updates don’t go away, please stay with us.