Google’s War on Free Clicks: Why SEO Isn’t the Answer

Search marketing company WordStream says Google has declared war on free clicks and the SEO industry. And I agree with them. Here’s why.

1. Google doesn’t make any money from SEO.

That’s right, Google is a multi-billion dollar company whose business is based almost entirely on getting you to click on search ads. It doesn’t benefit Google for you to have “good” SEO – they care about more people clicking.

2. People Click Search Ads

We all like to think that no one clicks on search ads. Wrong. In fact, 64.6% of commercial intent keywords come from SEM ads in Google. Only 35.4% come from organic, unpaid results.  That’s almost two-thirds of all clicks that go to paid results.

3. SEO is Convoluted and Dying

In the modern Google search page, ads and local listings dominate the results. On average, less than 15% of the page is from organic listings. Additionally, the top three spots take 41.1% of the clicks, whereas the top organic listing only gets 8.9% of the clicks. Since Google never discloses exactly what makes “good” SEO, most companies are forced to make educated guesses on exactly what Google is looking for.

Those are just three of the many reasons why the SEO industry is dying. Clickstream made an awesome infographic which you can find here.

It’s time to start putting your hard-earned advertising dollars into something that converts. Contact us today and see why you should get started with Google AdWords.


Small Business SEO Tips from Google

On Tuesday, Google released a video with some helpful SEO tips for small businesses.

One of Google’s tips is to make sure your content is readable for humans. If people can read it, Google can read it. They also said to make sure to link content in your site with strong anchor text. For example, instead of saying “For product specifications, click here.” You should say “For more information, look at our product specifications.”

Once you get your SEO all figured out, come talk to us at Conversion Logix. We specialize in bringing you more qualified traffic than any other form of advertising. You can watch the entire Google video below.

We’ll drive traffic to your website with Search Engine Marketing. Once you get traffic, we can capture leads with a Conversion Driver landing page and remarket to your website visitors with Retargeting.

The options are limited for small businesses that want to advertise online. Contact us today for your free consultation and we can help you get more from the Internet.


Advertising Spend Continues To Move Online

More people are advertising online than ever before, representing a shift from traditional media.

According to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), revenues from digital advertising grew 15% to $8.4 billion.

Out of this increase, mobile grew the most, growing 149% to $1.6 billion. However, search still retained the top position, accounting for 46.5% of revenue, up from 44.7% two years ago.

The top driver of online advertising was the retail industry. Retail made up 22% of all online advertising dollars, compared to 21% a year ago. The second largest industry was the financial services industry, with a 13% share of all revenue, up from 12% in 2010.

These rising numbers show that you need to get started with a digital advertising campaign. You can’t afford to miss out on this growing opportunity to increase your revenue and sales.

Online advertising isn’t just for online businesses. Everyone starts their product search online, and you need to be there when they search.

Contact us today to get started with your campaign.


More Auto Shoppers Researching on Mobile Devices

A recent report from mobile ad network Mojiva found that 69% of US consumers were interested in researching a new car using their mobile phone.

When asked which information would be most valuable in mobile auto ads, 20 percent said they wanted to find features and benefits, 12 percent wanted to book a test drive with a local dealer, and 47 percent wanted to sign up for deals and offers.

Also, ad exposure played a roll in driving direct response. As of March 2012, 57 percent of respondents said they would browse a website after seeing an ad on their phone, and 38% said they would download a mobile app.

Even though mobile research is increasing, it will be a long time before people make vehicle purchases from their phones. It is more likely that most consumers will use mobile as another research outlet at the beginning stages of their purchase decision.

If you want to get started with a mobile search campaign, contact us today for a free consultation. We know how to get more from mobile, and we know you’ll sell more cars with an effective mobile campaign.


Mobile Marketing Infographic

Mobile Marketing isn’t still on its way in — it’s here. Mobile marketing is bigger than it ever has been before, and is only getting bigger. It’s estimated that more than 2 billion people will use the mobile Internet by 2015, outpacing desktop users.

HighTable put together an infographic to better illustrate the rising number of mobile users. Check it out below.

Interested in getting into this growing market? Check out our website, conversionlogix.com. We’ve successfully executed many mobile campaigns for small and medium-sized businesses. Don’t miss the boat on mobile. Find out more today!


Search Retargeting: Filling The Gaps In Your Marketing Strategy

It can be intimidating to try and figure out where to spend your money on digital advertising. With so many options to choose from, it can be difficult to find what’s really necessary.

A good place to start is with paid search advertising. We call it search targeting, and it gets your business listed at the top of the search results for everything relevant to your company. This is important because the Internet may be the first place your customers ever hear about you.

A second way to advertise is by using Site Retargeting. Every time you get a website hit, that’s a potential lead. Aside from the people who accidentally click on your site, all of your visitors are at least somewhat interested in your products or services. The sad truth is that 98% of your website visitors leave without taking any action.

Site Retargeting remedies this by delivering ad impressions to people after they leave your website. This allows you to effectively follow-up with every single person who visits your website.

So what happens if someone searches for you, sees your ad, but doesn’t click your links? The answer is Search Retargeting.

Search Retargeting works by focusing on people who conduct searches for things related to your business, products or services. That way, even if they don’t click on your link, you can still advertise to them.

Every search represents someone trying to solve a problem. They might be looking for a new car, a pizza shop or the best way to tie a tie. Most of the time, consumers will research something without a specific business in mind. By focusing on their search intent, you can reach out to them as they research.

This helps fill in the gaps left by your SEO and paid search efforts by advertising to people who intend to buy what you have to sell.

These three tactics give you the ability to target your advertising to the right person at the right time. First, Search Engine Marketing lets people with purchase intent find your website. Next, if they visit your site and don’t take an action, Site Retargeting will advertise to them, keeping your business top of mind. Finally, if they search for a business, product or service like you, Search Retargeting will allow you to advertise to them regardless if they visited your website or not.

Don’t waste your money on advertising products that don’t work and can’t be easily measured. Instead, deliver your message to a targeted prospect rather than an ambiguous group.

Contact us today if you’re interested in learning more about Search Retargeting and other forms of digital advertising.


An Introduction to Search Retargeting

Site Retargeting and Search Engine Marketing are two staples of local digital advertising. Now, we have a third piece called Search Retargeting that compliments all your existing advertising campaigns.

Search Retargeting works by focusing on people who conduct searches for things related to your business, products or services. That way, even if they don’t click on your link, you can still advertise to them.

Every search represents someone trying to solve a problem. They might be looking for a new car, a pizza shop or the best way to tie a tie. Most of the time, consumers will research something without a specific business in mind. By focusing on their search intent, you can reach out to them as they research.

For example, if someone is searching for “valentine’s day flowers” or “flower bouquet,” you can be sure that they are trying to find a place to buy flowers for a loved one. Search Retargeting uses this intent to deliver banner advertisements to people who search for anything related to your business, products or services. Your ads will appear on millions of sites all over the Internet: social, news, entertainment and more.

Search Retargeting works because it allows you to target people who actually want to buy your product rather than focusing on a single demographic or geographic area.

You may have great SEO and search ads, but there is no way to guarantee that someone will click on your links. With Search Retargeting, you can deliver banner ads to anyone who is looking for companies like yours, regardless of whether they clicked your link or not.

This makes Search Retargeting a powerful piece to add into your existing advertising. You’ll be able to target a bigger audience than ever before, but still advertise only to people who are in the market for what you have to sell.

If you have questions about Search Retargeting or other digital advertising campaigns, contact us for a free consultation.


Clicks aren’t the only thing to look at in a display campaign

A lot of the time, people focus on the click-through rate of banner ads to measure how successful they are. This is a fine way to get the baseline statistics on how a display campaign is performing, but banner ads offer much more than just ways for people to get to your website.

One of the ways they help is with overall brand recognition. Your display advertisement could be the first time that someone hears about your brand, and even if they don’t click on it, they are still being exposed to your company.

A second way it helps is by bringing a lift to your search engine marketing campaign. Running a display ad campaign with a SEM campaign has proved to bring significant lift in sales volume. For example, Salesforce.com found that running a display campaign with their search campaign increased branded search and conversion volume by 80 percent.

You can also get a lift in your website conversions through Retargeting. Retargeting displays ads to all the people who have visited your website, keeping you top of mind throughout their researching cycle.

Display and search can combine to make your website a lead-generation machine. If you have questions, or want to get started with either search or display ads, contact us for a free consultation.


Local Internet Advertising Spending Expected to Pass Print Advertising in 2013

The Internet is about to claim another victim. First it was the postal service, then the classifieds, next it’s going to be print all together.

A new report from Borrell Associates said that online spending was up 21 percent in 2011, and will pass local print spending next year.

Despite the big increases, traditional media still holds the majority of all advertising dollars, but Internet spending is increasing, while traditional is decreasing or staying flat. That means that sooner or later, Internet advertising will surpass all traditional advertising, though who knows when that will be.

Borrell is predicting that the overall growth of local online advertising will be 18%, as it goes from $15.7 billion to $18.5 billion.

Also, if mobile is included as part of that projection, the number will jump to more than $26 billion by 2016.

Those are some huge numbers, and they really reflect the current changes in the advertising landscape, as more and more money is moved from traditional to online.

Curious about getting an online campaign of your own? Contact us today for a free consultation. We do mobile targeting, retargeting, search marketing and much more.


Local Advertising is Going Digital

According to research firm BIA/Kelsey, more than one out of every four ad dollars will be spent on digital advertising by 2016.

US companies are expected to spend $136.2 billion on local advertising this year, and that number is expected to rise to $151.3 billion by end of 2016.

Out of that rise in local advertising, traditional is expected to remain flat during the period, with most of the growth coming from digital advertising.

Digital advertising is expected to grow from 16% of total local advertising to more than 25% over the next four years.

Digital advertising is gaining traction and there’s never been a better time to get started with a campaign of your own. We are a full-service, digital ad agency that specializes in creating the best campaigns for your business.

If you want to learn more about products like search targeting, retargeting and mobile landing pages, check out our website. Or, contact us for a free consultation.