What to Expect from Search Marketing

We get this question a lot. It's sort of the 'how do we know when we're there' question. There are some clear objectives that can be measured that we will discuss in this article.

From a high level, watch for these 3 things:

1. Results. This may be sales, leads, 'contact us' requests, quote requests, or some form of download
2. Sales. Actual revenue that can be tied directly to the campaign
3. Intelligence. Information about your visitor, who they are, and how they behave

What is the Role of Search Marketing?

If I can make a quick 'real world' analogy, it would be to compare your website to a sales team, and your search marketing to a business development prospector - 'hunter/gatherer'. The search marketing finds the leads (cold, warm, and hot) and passes them to your sales team (your website) to be cultivated and closed. We see all types of situations - sites that close well with search programs that don't generate leads as well as search programs that generate great leads with sites that fail to cultivate and close the leads.

1. Results

If your SEO tells you there are no guarantees, ask why. We used to have two types of campaigns - certified and uncertified. In an uncertified campaign we would generally do everything we could to improve traffic to a clients site, but we could offer no guarantees generally due to limitations on the part of the client to make certain changes/improvements to their website. We now offer only certified programs (we call them blended campaigns) where we have tangible objectives for the campaign. If the campaign fails to meet the objectives, we adjust as needed to ensure they are met in the following month in addition to the baseline objectives for that month.

2. Sales

If your site is designed to lead to sales, then your search campaign should produce tangible sales. If not, something is broken. It may that the campaign is working, but the reporting piece is failing, or it may be that many sales are happening offline, and you need to make some adjustments to track these sales correctly. Bottom line, no sales = a failing campaign (in cases where sales is the objective).

3. Intelligence

You should be receiving reports that are easily understood. There should be a one or two page executive summary that states 'How are we doing?' in clear, non-technical language. In these reports should be information about the visitor - we use  a system (where applicable) to help 'tag' visitors based on their behavior - for example '12% Engineers', '7% decision makers', etc. You may also want to DECIDE which visitors you want to attract, in this case we would want to report on how we're doing - are there more engineers, are there more decision makers?

What Should you NOT Look for?

1. Activity

Folks tend to look for activity when they fail to see results. For example, imagine you hire a new person, and they have pre-determined goals. Initially when they fail to hit those goals, where do you look first? You evaluate 'what they are doing' with their time. You stopped looking for results and began looking for activity. This happens, and it's appropriate - but never begin a campaign with activity in mind - set the expectation and measure it. Evaluating your campaign success based on activity does not give you a picture of the campaigns effectiveness. Watch for results. If you don't have results defined, define some and measure them. Ask your search firm to project what sort of numbers they would expect to hit based on your objectives. Also - ask your search firm for suggestions of good objectives if you are struggling to define them.

2. "Rankings"

This is by far the toughest part to get past. Do it right, do it consistently, measure it, and if the rankings come, great. Otherwise, watch the results. Starting in 2009 we began seeing clients come to the realization that rankings are not the answer, but the allure of 'Measuring Rankings' tends to pull us in - remember, no other business objectives work this way. Imagine that you have a sales team, and they are not selling a thing, but they tell you 'We're getting in front of a lot of decision makers in very broad markets'. They are 'out there' but they are failing in the most important measurable way - sales. Your site needs to work the same way, ranking is one very small part of the equation. Do it right, and the rankings will follow - don't start with the rankings as an objective. Start will results.

Wrapping it Up

If you are having a tough time defining the things that make a campaign a success, don't fear, you're in good company. We do search campaigns for small companies and for massive companies - and they all struggle with this. We can help, and you probably have some great ideas, but you just might need some help fine-tuning the particulars of how to get it done. Just remember, your search marketer should be able to offer tangible predictions about what your campaign will do - and they should be able to help you define the key performance indicators.

In the end, your search team  should be able to tell you how things are going in clear language that a non-technical person can understand - that's their job. Watch their reports for actionable observations - not simple things such as 'visits were up', but more tangible things such as 'This product does well in cold climates,but is underperforming in Montana - here is what we suggest". Expect more from your search marketer - and they will perform.