Posted by Jan on 7 Aug 2008

So you have targeted different countries for your campaigns to run in, but are still getting conversions from users outside of your targeted locations. Now what? Well, we recently had to go through a whole exercise to exclude a certain country from one of our campaigns…

Let’s look at an example that is just weird: If you are for instance targeting the US and the UK with your campaign, you would think that people browsing google.com or google.co.uk, regardless of where they are in the world, should not see your ads, unless they are actually in the US or UK, right? Wrong… You might have noticed that your ads will still appear on .co.uk, even if you’re browsing from SA, like me, but not on .com. It seems that for some reason Google will check your IP when browsing .com, but not when browsing .co.uk.

There are a few ways to get around this. You could move from location or country targeting, to custom or area targeting. For instance, you could turn off the actual country in your target list and then select the actual states in that country. This seems to work, but end up looking rather messy when you’re looking at your campaign setup. This functionality is not yet available for all countries either. The other option is to exclude ip ranges with the ip exclusion tool.

We are testing both options and will soon post our findings here.

Posted by Jan on 20 Jun 2008

Most online marketing agencies don’t like to take on clients with advertising budgets of anything less than R20k per month. There are a number of reasons for that, but the fact is that there is a place for smaller companies, or companies with limited budgets in the search specific advertising space.

Firstly, can you really expect a South African based company to whom internet marketing is still to a large extend a relatively new concept, to immediately start spending R20k per month on some new unfamiliar marketing channel? It’s not always an easy task convincing people to look further than the traditional marketing avenues when there are new budget allocations involved…

Secondly, depending on which industry you’re trying to market and who you are targeting, you can in most cases, easily prove to a client that search marketing or more specific, paid search marketing, will work for them with a monthly budget of R6k to R10k. One of the best selling points of PPC marketing is the great ROI generated by the channel. This will ensure that clients who start off on small budgets will in time see how their investments are working for them and increase their budgets accordingly.

In short what I’m trying to say is that if you have a marketable product, search marketing can definitely work for your company, even if you don’t have a massive budget to start with.

Posted by Mandy on 16 May 2008

Yes its been a while since we wrote on our blog! Tut Tut! But moving offices and other exciting changes had us running around like wild creatures for a few weeks. Things are settling into a manageable pace again so hopefully some more chatter from the Traffic Branders is on the cards.

I have also put some writing efforts into a new travel industry blog which has been consuming my words :). Online Travel Focus is a great new blog focussed on information and challenges facing the South African tourism industry’s online presence. It has some very informative topics and articles and provides a great resource for the web savvy travel industry experts to keep abreast with developments in the field.

Online Travel Focus is run by Paul Hobden who recently returned to South Africa after many years in the UK. Paul was also instrumental in hosting the successful Online Travel Summit last month. His focus on research and disseminating information for the wealth of local online travel companies promises to fill a much needed gap and I am sure that his expertise will add great value to our existing knowledge pool.

Posted by Jan on 12 Mar 2008

Last week, somebody from Google made a crucial mistake, which sparked a flurry of cross channel marketing attempts.

On Friday morning when I looked at my inbox, I found a mail from the Google Advertising Professional team which at first seemed like just another mail from them asking advertisers to participate in one of their online surveys. In this case, the survey was to help them gather information about a potential new proposal document for advertisers to use when pitching to clients.

After reading the mail I noticed that for some reason the sender left all the “to” addresses in the mail, visible to everyone. As you can imagine, this list could be quite valuable as it is a real list, with real advertisers and no fake or generated email addresses… Almost immediately one of the recipients replied with an attempt to advertise his own marketing company. Soon after that the original sender replied, apologising for the mistake and asking everybody to respect their fellow Adwords advertisers and not to use the list for their own marketing attempts. The apology did not help and quite a few emails rolled in after that, some of them even stating that this is an opportunity not to be missed. Most of the opportunists asked for referrals and offered rewards for them.

Personally I don’t think spamming the list is the right thing to do. I did however appreciate the opportunity to go and check out my competitors without much effort in finding them. It’s easy to find the company website by looking at the email addresses. Looking at their websites, you can quickly get a very good image of the companies and decide if you want to try and align yourself or partner with them or not.

My advice to the people who have the list is to use the list to find the companies you think would be good for you to partner with and then contact them via the appropriate channels and to stop spamming the list.

To summarise, I think it leaves a bad impression when you are supposed to be a credible search marketing company, but yet, make use of the first dodgy opportunity you get to market yourself… O yes, and of course it’s good to see that even somebody working for Google can make a mistake 🙂

Posted by Jan on 12 Mar 2008

Yesterday, Google finalised their acquisition deal of DoubleClick, a company that offers an awesome range of online marketing products to advertisers, publishers and agencies.

One immediate question comes to mind:
What does it mean for all other agencies and Adwords advertisers?

In my opinion, it sure looks like Google is trying to position themselves as an agency. Just look at features on Adwords like the Conversion Optimizer, Budget Optimizer, etc. Now that they have a full blown campaign management system at their disposal, I think it might become increasingly difficult to sell bid and campaign management tools, etc as Google releases them for free on Adwords. This means that agencies will have to make greater effort to position themselves as marketing specialists and not just service providers with great tools. More companies will most likely do or try to do their marketing campaigns in-house.

If you take a step back and look at the internet and how it has become more user friendly over the past couple of years, especially with the immersion of web 2.0, one can start to see a trend. A few years ago, companies had to pay fortunes to get websites done for them and pay even more to have a content management system behind it. These days, with hundreds of web development tools, content management systems and blogs freely available, it has become much easier and cheaper to get your company online. I believe the same is happening with the marketing of these sites. It’s fast becoming much easier to effectively manage your own campaigns, etc. with the launch of every new product. The difference is that when you want an exceptional website or an exceptional marketing campaign, you still and will always need a specialist with passion for what he or she does, in order to make the project stand out from the rest.

In the long run I believe there will always be a need for specialist online marketing agencies as online marketing is not a science, but rather an art form, which needs a passionate artist to make it a big success.

Posted by Jan on 29 Feb 2008

Although web applications are great and handy, many systems are still better in desktop format than web format. This is mainly due to speed and usability. Luckily, with web 2.0 this is changing rapidly and personally I can’t wait for the day that I don’t have to install anything other than an operating system on my machine. For now that won’t be possible, especially not here in SA.

Fortunately bandwidth seems to be the only issue holding us back from achieving this complete online status. Take for instance bid management tools. When working with tons of data, i.e. thousands of keywords, it quickly becomes a nightmare to manage, search through or bulk edit your data online. In the case of DART Search for instance (last time I worked with it was about a year ago), we had to download our lists in excel format & then edit our data, and upload it again. Time consuming to say the least… Adwords editor is a good example of how Google actually acknowledges the fact that it is still much easier to work on your data through the use of a desktop app.

In my case, struggling to find or edit data due to waiting for a page to load, usually leads to postponing the task, which in most cases leads to postponing it indefinitely. This is one of the main reasons we developed our bid management system in a desktop application format. Another reason is the lack of connectivity when for instance travelling, but hopefully this will also change soon as airlines come on board.

The future for user applications and tools are definitely online though and Google is setting a good example with Google Docs, etc. Another great example is Vinny Lingham’s online website creation system, Yola, which could perhaps replace software like Dreamweaver, etc. in the future.

Posted by Mandy on 27 Feb 2008

aaaarrrgghhh! Maybe you could get away with it if you had some direct satellite link to the bandwidth Gods…but please flashy people – have you never tried to surf the net in South Africa and had to wait 5 minutes for a site to open because it’s all flash-based? I beg you to do some more research in your chosen field. No-one’s denying that flash elements on a website look great and are super useful and there are some brilliantly designed flash websites that actually work and load quickly. You good developers are exempt from my rant! It’s the old school flash sites that show you the loading bar percentage process that are my particular gripe. It’s a fact. Our bandwidth speed and consistency in South Africa is a problem. A site that takes ages to load because of shoddy development work…well you can certainly count me out and tab me up with your other frustrated potential clients.

Posted by Mandy on 21 Feb 2008

Of course there are several companies who have finally caught on to the worldwide trend of transferring a large percentage of marketing dollars to online channels. But as a whole I would say that there is still a severe lack of comprehensive understanding of the opportunities that online marketing and specifically PPC can offer South African companies.

I was pretty shocked yesterday when I spoke to the marketing director of one of the biggest car rental companies in South Africa when she said that she already has “an online strategy because she has a web designer”. EEK! Dangerous territory for a travel related company. Especially when the web is the preferred channel for 50% of UK users searching for financial and travel items. [Source: Equi-Media, February 2006] and that an industry study revealed that nearly 75% of travel buyers used search engines before making a purchase. [DoubleClick / Performics / comScore, “Search Before the Purchase”, March 2005].

Whether your travel company is an online operator or not it stands to reason that an effective online marketing strategy is vital to your survival.

I also spoke with someone who has an inside interest in one of the major food and beverage retailers in South Africa who was also at his wits end trying to convince the big marketing honchos of the need for and the effectiveness of search marketing.

It is amazing to me that anyone in marketing has no interest or understanding of online marketing channels. Even if they are over 50 and have to get their children to set-up their online banking profiles…one would think that on a professional level they would hire a young online marketing professional who could source and manage relevant agencies to establish their brand’s online profile.

These two incidents revealed to me just how much revenue and indeed national and international exposure big corporates in SA are missing out on.

It is my opinion that the South African companies who are already operating in the online space or who are considering including it in their marketing mix in the next year are going to have a massive advantage over their competitors who are too intimidated by online marketing to even consider its worth. These ostriches who bury their heads do not realise that online advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry already in the US and that every day they shy away from the leap to online is lost revenue and lost branding opportunities.

There has never been a more targeted channel that provides such massive opportunity for feedback on consumer preferences and purchasing habits. Wakey wakey Marketing head honchos!

Posted by Jan on 20 Feb 2008

Today marks the day that my son is two months old and I can’t help but wonder what the future holds…

Where will technology be in 5 to 10 years time when he starts using the internet? Will we still have offices to go to or will technology be so advanced that we don’t really need to waste money on office space or waste time on getting to the office? Will we have to leave our homes for anything? We already don’t. We can buy anything online and communicate with colleagues, clients, family and friends from the comfort of our homes. Our kids can even be educated from home if we prefer it that way. Personally I prefer getting out of the house and interacting with my colleagues, but it is great to have the facility to work from home when I need to.

South Africa is a bit behind when it comes to internet access, but things are changing and soon every household will be able to afford a broadband connection. Connections will become faster and cheaper and you know what that means for online marketers… That’s it, South Africa will become a huge target market in the very near future and I am very excited about the fact that Traffic Brand will be around to be a part of it. We have a few local clients and I can see that local traffic numbers are definitely picking up month after month as more and more users make their way online.

Back to my son: Some things I try to remember when I think about his future in South Africa is that technologies are constantly evolving, information is getting more available and accessible and in general, people (or at least the younger generation) have more options and choices. Then again, perhaps that has always been the case…

Posted by Jan on 14 Feb 2008

Everybody knows that it is extremely important to keep your adcopy fresh and updated, but at what point do you decide whether an ad is working or not working? The answer to this question is not a simple one and will be different across different industries. Different criteria will apply to different industries, but I have found that for us, the best way of deciding whether or not to change an ad, is to apply a set of rules or formulas to our ad performance reports.

I have come up with a simple set of rules that works well for us. It needs to be said that this formula should only be applied once a number of other checks have been done and you are absolutely sure that it is the ad that is the problem and not the keywords in the group, the bid price of the keywords, the positions you’re targeting, etc.

Once I am sure I need to change my ads, these are the formulas (adjusted for each client) I use to check for trouble areas:

Clicks > (a) AND Transactions = 0
Cost Per Transaction > (a)
Click Through Rate (b)

If any of the conditions above are TRUE, the ad needs to be changed.

Search marketing companies should always be looking at ways of improving their ads and this is just a guideline for determining which ads are not working, but it doesn’t mean that the rest of the ads for which the conditions are FALSE, can’t be improved on.

I would love to get input from anybody on this topic.

Posted by Jan on 7 Feb 2008

Just came back from one of the Cape Town Entrepreneur Meetup sessions organised by Eric Edelstein.

This is a networking meeting for just about anyone and everyone from any kind of industry. We sat at the same table as an entertainer who also works in offline marketing for example…

It’s a great way to meet interesting people with interesting ideas. I definitely recommend this to anyone who is open to sharing and listening to new ideas.

Posted by Jan on 25 Jan 2008

With the recent power outages we’ve been experiencing here in SA, I felt it necessary to provide some info regarding its effects on South African search engine marketing companies.

Unless there’s a big team of staff members to keep busy and therefore lose money because of loss of productivity, there really isn’t much impact on the business compared to some other industries at all, especially from a client’s point of view. That is of course assuming that there’s minimal server downtime and that power is available for at least a couple of hours a day, which it has been. There is always the issue of websites not loading due to the servers being off and this can have a serious effect on businesses choosing to host their websites on SA servers. That being said, if the client is hosting with a professional enough company, they will hopefully by now have generators or ups systems in place to ensure the uptime of their clients’ websites.

Unfortunately as SEM’s, we’re not always in control over where our clients host their websites, but in general, if websites are hosted by professional local or overseas companies, the impact of power cuts on our ability to provide a service is minimal. This is largely due to the fact that search engines don’t stop showing ads because of power cuts in SA. Search campaigns don’t need constant monitoring by humans either. The downside to that is of course that if a website is affected and the campaign manager can’t access the internet, he or she can’t switch off the campaigns and it will inevitably cost someone some money…

To summarise: Your ads will continue showing, and if your website is up and running, it will continue to receive targeted traffic, whether the company responsible for managing the campaigns have power or not.

Posted by Jan on 17 Jan 2008

Is Google trying too hard to think for advertisers?

Any search engine advertiser knows that there are very good reasons for knowing exactly what search terms users are really finding your ads for. There are quite a few ways of getting this information, which is not what this discussion is about, although I might delve into that another time… For now though, all I intend to discuss is Google’s way of trying to “help” advertisers by matching terms that Google sees as related, to the actual terms advertisers choose to bid on.

When looking at the actual phrases your ads are actually showing for, you might be very surprised and even shocked. Your ads could be appearing for terms or phrases you would never dream of bidding on and that have absolutely no relevancy to your site. Best of all is that you would never even be aware of it if you don’t check your data… As we all know, there are three types of keyword match types for advertisers to choose from, namely Broad, Phrase and Exact match. The aim of this discussion is not to teach anybody about keyword match types, but rather to delve into the “Broad” match type a little.

Before I go into my explanation of broad match types, I feel it is necessary to say something about why I even use broad type keywords: When launching a new campaign, there is absolutely no way of knowing exactly what the keywords are that people are using for your specific product. Not even the most extensive keyword research can give you all the words people in your target market are using. You can get a good indication using various available tools but in order to find out what people are really using, you have to make use of broad type keywords. Using broad types can be rewarding, but could be more damaging than anything else if you don’t know what you’re doing. Combine your gathered search phrase data with your various groups by adding relevant terms and adding irrelevant terms to your negative list and you have a winning recipe. How you do that is not to be disclosed here for now… (Most good advertisers will know exactly how to anyway!)

So, what I actually want to discuss is Google’s initiative to show your ads for terms you’re not specifically bidding on. Here’s an example of what I’m referring to: Say for instance you’ve got a website selling tennis equipment. On your site you have a tennis shoe section, for which you have created a specific adgroup with specific keywords and specific ads that go to specific relevant landing pages. You might have the term “tennis shoes” as a broad match type in your keyword list as it is absolutely related to your site and specifically this section. By having this key term in your list, you would also be able to pick up and gather new terms related to tennis shoes, which will help you build and expand your keyword list. The reason I say that you should check your data every day is because even if your ads aren’t supposed to, it might also show up for searches like “sport shoes” or anything to do with sport and shoes… In some cases this could be very helpful, which is obviously the reason Google is doing it, but in other cases, it can destroy your budget if you don’t pick it up. I know that very few advertisers even use negative match types, which makes me wonder, just how many millions of dollars are spent daily on clicks by totally unqualified traffic to websites across the internet. This Google technology is called “Expanded Keyword Matching” and is only intended to show your ads for searches that are still relevant to your terms, but as I’ve been saying, that is not always the case as what Google sees as relevant to your site, is not always the same as what you might see as relevant. On the other hand, it is also this very technology that helps advertisers who know how to use their data, build and expand their keyword lists.

So how do we use this to our advantage?
By simply using the data at our disposal to regularly add relevant terms to our keyword lists and even more regularly add irrelevant terms to our negative match keyword lists. Remember to make sure you know exactly how negative matching works before you start blocking traffic to your site though…

Posted by Mandy on 15 Jan 2008

One of the challenges of being at the forefront of the world’s fastest growing media industry is that you are expected to stay abreast with the wealth of knowledge and information that is spun around on the Internet about the Internet. This mass of information pertaining to emerging trends, online demographics, changing algorithms and a plethora of new and evolved ways of marketing and advertising online is phenomenal. What really interests me though is the way that the Internet has managed to create a certain comradery and sharing of information amongst competitors. Perhaps this is owed to the fact that with any new industry, sharing of information is essential to the overall lasting success of the emerging fledgling.

Hence we return back to my title…viva la Blog! Forums and Blog’s have become an essential part of any online marketer’s world (and of course across other social and business sectors as well) in terms of discussing trends and pointing each other to good resources. With the emergence of social media I did wonder if their lifespan would be jeopardised. However, it seems that in the total Internet “network of networks” there is a place for all of our offline world to find its place online and Blogs although part of the online furniture by now do, in my opinion, offer personality to your company and play an integral part in creating online communities of shared interest and information.

So there you have it. Traffic Brand has added one more to the Blog World! May it be informative, friendly and quirky…a little like us!