Today is the final exam for my Digital Marketing course. On Monday, my team presented our final presentation and paper on the results of our Google Online Marketing Challenge. Needless to say, the end of this class has been extremely work intensive and I have not had a moment of reflection on how much I have really learned until now.
Although I didn't realize it when I was in the middle of the work, I understand now how much I have learned and how it has aided me completely in finishing the work. One of the largest lessons I learned was how to properly use Google Analytics and what each of the metrics and dimensions mean. I heavily relied on Google Analytics throughout the course and I realized that without an in-depth understanding of what the metrics meant, I would not have been able to make changes to the campaign and define the ads' successes and failures. Analytics is also extensively intertwined with the other programs necessary to run a campaign. I learned how changes made in AdWords and Webmaster Tools affect the site's Analytics. This opened more opportunities to learn and it is something that I will still expand on.
The second major takeaway from this course was the understanding involved in working with a client and with a group in a semester-long project. There were so many pieces involved in this lesson. First, I had to understand how the client worked, what her expectations were, what her vision was, and what her existing knowledge was. It was also important to note that she was from an older, less technologically savvy generation, and did not have much of a grasp on her website. In addition, she was the main employee of her business and her time dedicated to her site had to be minimal. She, however, was extremely engaged in the process and open to all recommendations because she understood that it was all for the benefit of her company. The other component of this lesson was the understanding involved in group dynamics. In all previous group work I've had, the projects were done internally. The results of this project, however, not only had an impact on my grades but also on the success of the client's company. This brought our group together and made us more dedicated to the goals of the project. Because there were so many moving parts to the project, we had to delegate tasks and make sure they all came together fluidly. This had some trial and error, but in the end, I think everything came together well.
This past semester has taught me so much and I hope to keep learning about digital marketing in my future career.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Experimental Design and AdWords
As the close of my team's AdWords campaign has closed, I would like to reflect on the campaign in the scope of our experimentation. As part of the Google Online Marketing Challenge, one stipulation of the competition was that we had to alter at least one aspect of our campaign within the 17 days the ads ran. We altered many parts of our campaign, including adding new keywords, changing the titles of our ad extensions, and increasing our budget (due to the shortening of our campaign time). The action we took that mostly relates to experimentation, however, was the addition of a third ad.
Our original ad group involved Ad #1 and Ad #2, which both had identical titles and destination URLs. There was only one difference between the ads: Ad #1 had a call-to-action in the second line and Ad #2 had a unique value proposition. After the first few days of monitoring the AdWords account, it became apparent that Ad #1 was preforming much better, at 98% served, than Ad #2, at 2% served. Our group then decided to add Ad #3 to the group, which still had the same title, destination URL, but had the first line meta description from Ad #2 and the call-to-action as the second line meta description from Ad #1. This ad also quickly surpassed Ad #2 in percentage served, and was on trend to be as successful as Ad #1 (I do not have the metrics at this time unfortunately).
This action correlates with this TED-Ed video and two articles given in class, "Finally, A Majority of Executives Embrace Experimentation" and "How to Design Smart Business Experiments." The three resources all shared an underlying theme - the idea that too many businesses implement new features to their business based on "gut feelings," and should instead turn to a "test and learn" mindset. While there are many experimentation methods out there, like prototyping, stimulation, randomized clinical studies, and epidemiological studies, the one that related most to our digital marketing objectives was test groups and A/B testing. The actions taken in our ad campaign represent an A/B test because it tests two live versions of the same ad and is tested on the success of the higher performing version.
In the future, I would like to use this type of experimentation on differing types of digital media. I think this type of live testing in which you can immediately garner data to determine what is performing best is very interesting. In a technologically driven world in which consumers expect the marketer to understand exactly what they would like, this kind of experimenting offers immediate results and is determined by the same customer that you are targeting.
Our original ad group involved Ad #1 and Ad #2, which both had identical titles and destination URLs. There was only one difference between the ads: Ad #1 had a call-to-action in the second line and Ad #2 had a unique value proposition. After the first few days of monitoring the AdWords account, it became apparent that Ad #1 was preforming much better, at 98% served, than Ad #2, at 2% served. Our group then decided to add Ad #3 to the group, which still had the same title, destination URL, but had the first line meta description from Ad #2 and the call-to-action as the second line meta description from Ad #1. This ad also quickly surpassed Ad #2 in percentage served, and was on trend to be as successful as Ad #1 (I do not have the metrics at this time unfortunately).
This action correlates with this TED-Ed video and two articles given in class, "Finally, A Majority of Executives Embrace Experimentation" and "How to Design Smart Business Experiments." The three resources all shared an underlying theme - the idea that too many businesses implement new features to their business based on "gut feelings," and should instead turn to a "test and learn" mindset. While there are many experimentation methods out there, like prototyping, stimulation, randomized clinical studies, and epidemiological studies, the one that related most to our digital marketing objectives was test groups and A/B testing. The actions taken in our ad campaign represent an A/B test because it tests two live versions of the same ad and is tested on the success of the higher performing version.
In the future, I would like to use this type of experimentation on differing types of digital media. I think this type of live testing in which you can immediately garner data to determine what is performing best is very interesting. In a technologically driven world in which consumers expect the marketer to understand exactly what they would like, this kind of experimenting offers immediate results and is determined by the same customer that you are targeting.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Google Webmaster Tools
Although my client's website is very workable and is targeted well to her clients, it could use a few improvements. I would recommend my client to utilize Google Webmaster Tools, a program that can aid in the improvement of a website by
optimizing its content. It works with Google Analytics and Google Adwords,
which respectively monitors performance and drives the right traffic to the
website. The GWMT Guide (2014) adds, "Google Analytics tracks visitors to your site and tells you where your site visitors are from and how they navigate your site, whereas Google Webmaster Tools are a set of tools to help you maximize your website’s search visibility on Google." Because all data shown in GWMT is only organic search derived, and the impressions are solely based exact match search queries (The GWMT Guide, 2014), it is extremely important that my client's site is visible through Google search.
An important aspect my client should consider when optimizing her site is the content, copy, and story. While my client's business works within a narrow industry, and she caters well to her local area, she has plans to expand her geographic location. With this, I feel she must be sure that her story translates will through the Internet to those who are only finding her through search. The majority of my client's business is conducted through referrals. In order to reach those outside of her area and solely online, she must make sure she is communicating as effectively as her in-person networking. J. Gordon and J. Perrey (2015) reaffirms this by saying,"Even as marketing reaches new heights with technology-enabled measurement, the importance of the story hasn’t diminished. In this world, creativity is in greater demand than ever." Because my client is the webmaster of the site and has been updating it frequently over the past months, it would behoove her in narrowing down the most successful version of her copy using content experimentation through A/B split and multivariate testing. She can create two working versions of her site with two different copies, projecting her brand from different story angles.
When viewing her Google Analytics report, I noticed that a percentage of my client's users view her site from mobile devices. Thus, I think it would help my client's visibility and bounce rate to make her site mobile-friendly. She can do this by first taking Google's Mobile-Friendly Test which will reveal which pages of the site are already mobile-friendly. She can then research information through her website platform to see the best way to optimize her site. There are other resources through Google that will also aid my client. The importance in this optimization lies in the fact that my client is conducting business in a technologically driven world, and any tech issues can deter customers. Although it make seem like a simple action, this can aid in reducing my client's bounce rate and can welcome clients to her site at any time from any place.
Gordon, J. & Perrey, J. (February 2015). The dawn of marketing's new golden age. The McKinsley Quarterly. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/the_dawn_of_marketings_new_golden_age?cid=other-eml-nsl-mip-mck-oth-1503
Digital Ready Marketing. (6 September 2014). Google webmaster tools guide. Digital Ready Marketing. Retrieved from http://digitalreadymarketing.com/search-traffic-overview-google-webmaster-tools-guide/
Google. (2015). Webmaster tools. Google Webmaster Academy. Retrieved from https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6001104?hl=en&ref_topic=4631146
An important aspect my client should consider when optimizing her site is the content, copy, and story. While my client's business works within a narrow industry, and she caters well to her local area, she has plans to expand her geographic location. With this, I feel she must be sure that her story translates will through the Internet to those who are only finding her through search. The majority of my client's business is conducted through referrals. In order to reach those outside of her area and solely online, she must make sure she is communicating as effectively as her in-person networking. J. Gordon and J. Perrey (2015) reaffirms this by saying,"Even as marketing reaches new heights with technology-enabled measurement, the importance of the story hasn’t diminished. In this world, creativity is in greater demand than ever." Because my client is the webmaster of the site and has been updating it frequently over the past months, it would behoove her in narrowing down the most successful version of her copy using content experimentation through A/B split and multivariate testing. She can create two working versions of her site with two different copies, projecting her brand from different story angles.
When viewing her Google Analytics report, I noticed that a percentage of my client's users view her site from mobile devices. Thus, I think it would help my client's visibility and bounce rate to make her site mobile-friendly. She can do this by first taking Google's Mobile-Friendly Test which will reveal which pages of the site are already mobile-friendly. She can then research information through her website platform to see the best way to optimize her site. There are other resources through Google that will also aid my client. The importance in this optimization lies in the fact that my client is conducting business in a technologically driven world, and any tech issues can deter customers. Although it make seem like a simple action, this can aid in reducing my client's bounce rate and can welcome clients to her site at any time from any place.
Gordon, J. & Perrey, J. (February 2015). The dawn of marketing's new golden age. The McKinsley Quarterly. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/the_dawn_of_marketings_new_golden_age?cid=other-eml-nsl-mip-mck-oth-1503
Digital Ready Marketing. (6 September 2014). Google webmaster tools guide. Digital Ready Marketing. Retrieved from http://digitalreadymarketing.com/search-traffic-overview-google-webmaster-tools-guide/
Google. (2015). Webmaster tools. Google Webmaster Academy. Retrieved from https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6001104?hl=en&ref_topic=4631146
Friday, January 30, 2015
Testing Out Search Engine Marketing Tools
This past week of class has been full of amazing speakers and visits. This past Monday, our class welcomed Chris Vella, a search analyst from LunaMetrics, to speak about Google AdWords. He mainly focused his lecture on keywords and characteristics of successful Google ads. First, the title tag should include your main keywords and have a strong indication of what your business is. This can be organized with a "pipe," or a vertical line that separates text. Below the title tag, the meta description should involve keywords, share what the webpage is about, and include either a call-to-action and/or a unique value proposition (UVP). A UVP is best suited for heavy hitter pages, but a call-to-action should be used as frequently as possible. Lastly, when the consumer has clicked on your URL, it should lead them directly to the landing page most closely related to their original keyword. Information on this page should not be overwhelming or contain too many uses of the keyword or else the page will lose credibility. Vella covered this in more depth, but I felt as though these facts were most useful and connected to our client.
On Wednesday, our class took a tour of Google and attended a lecture by Tim James, a partner technology manager. The tour was very entertaining and seemed like an amazing place to work. James' talk centered what the Pittsburgh branch of Google focused on most - shopping. He explained that typically consumers shop online for the least expensive version of a product regardless of company loyalty. This has posed a threat to both brick-and-mortar stores and their store websites. James noted that brand advertising has been extremely successful in combatting this, as it promotes the store rather than a specific product. Advertising on Google includes AdWords, AdWords Express, Youtube Ads, and Shopping Ads (Product Listing Ads and Local Inventory Ads). Although the Pittsburgh branch focuses on the Shopping Ads, James spoke mainly about AdWords. My main takeaways from his talk were to make sure each ad group within a campaign successfully matches a specific product or service and to consistently use Google Analytics to track your ad groups' success.
Although I asked many questions for both speakers, I have some further questions about Adwords and search engine optimization. If my client has various products and services, should I create ad groups for each one even if it routes the potential customer to the same page? Or should I ask my client to divide the products and services up and devote a singular page to each? I am also interested to see how Google Analytics will work with our client's site, as she has very little traffic.
In preparation for the beginning of the Google Online Marketing Challenge, I have attempted to use both Google AdWords Keyword Planner and Screaming Frog. Here is what I thought of each:
Google AdWords Keyword Planner:
This program is known as Google's official keyword aid, in that when an advertiser seeks to find semantically related keywords, he or she searches through Keyword Planner. Planner can successfully help you find other keywords because they have the mind of a computer, rather than a human, and has tracked information related to frequently searched words. When I tried Keywords for the first time, it prompted me to input my budget, my network target audience, my bids, and my text ads to base the suggestions off of. It was a very fluid and easy process, and I look forward to using it for my client.
Screaming Frog:
Screaming Frog is a small desktop program that pulls onsite elements for SEO and presents them on your computer, allowing you to filter for common SEO issues. The data it collects is endless and involves every aspect of search engine optimization. The best part of this is that it crawls in the computer side of digital marketing, including the server-side programming languages, which I am not familiar with. I have downloaded this product to my desktop and am excited to utilize it when I work on my client's advertising.
On Wednesday, our class took a tour of Google and attended a lecture by Tim James, a partner technology manager. The tour was very entertaining and seemed like an amazing place to work. James' talk centered what the Pittsburgh branch of Google focused on most - shopping. He explained that typically consumers shop online for the least expensive version of a product regardless of company loyalty. This has posed a threat to both brick-and-mortar stores and their store websites. James noted that brand advertising has been extremely successful in combatting this, as it promotes the store rather than a specific product. Advertising on Google includes AdWords, AdWords Express, Youtube Ads, and Shopping Ads (Product Listing Ads and Local Inventory Ads). Although the Pittsburgh branch focuses on the Shopping Ads, James spoke mainly about AdWords. My main takeaways from his talk were to make sure each ad group within a campaign successfully matches a specific product or service and to consistently use Google Analytics to track your ad groups' success.
Although I asked many questions for both speakers, I have some further questions about Adwords and search engine optimization. If my client has various products and services, should I create ad groups for each one even if it routes the potential customer to the same page? Or should I ask my client to divide the products and services up and devote a singular page to each? I am also interested to see how Google Analytics will work with our client's site, as she has very little traffic.
In preparation for the beginning of the Google Online Marketing Challenge, I have attempted to use both Google AdWords Keyword Planner and Screaming Frog. Here is what I thought of each:
Google AdWords Keyword Planner:
This program is known as Google's official keyword aid, in that when an advertiser seeks to find semantically related keywords, he or she searches through Keyword Planner. Planner can successfully help you find other keywords because they have the mind of a computer, rather than a human, and has tracked information related to frequently searched words. When I tried Keywords for the first time, it prompted me to input my budget, my network target audience, my bids, and my text ads to base the suggestions off of. It was a very fluid and easy process, and I look forward to using it for my client.
Screaming Frog:
Screaming Frog is a small desktop program that pulls onsite elements for SEO and presents them on your computer, allowing you to filter for common SEO issues. The data it collects is endless and involves every aspect of search engine optimization. The best part of this is that it crawls in the computer side of digital marketing, including the server-side programming languages, which I am not familiar with. I have downloaded this product to my desktop and am excited to utilize it when I work on my client's advertising.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Google Market Research Tools
Following my previous post, I have gained a great deal of insight concerning online tools that benefit one's website. I would consider PageRank to be the one of the most important concepts I have learned, as it identifies how webpages are ranked. A website is ranked based on its popularity and relevance to its search terms. As Dr. Chung explained in class, a website's popularity can be boosted by its connection to other highly ranked websites through links. Relevance is also important as it must clearly and closely relate to the search terms. The quality of webpages was discussed in Chapter 3 of the Internet Marketing Essentials Textbook. Webpages can be more highly ranked if they have short load times, fresh content, good grammar and spelling, low bounce rate from landing pages, and original content. These attributes are invaluable to know, as my group will be working with our client to improve their webpage for the highest ranking search possibilities. A PageRank can be checked online through sites like this.
In addition to this, I learned the differences between white hat and black hat SEO practices. SEO practices are those involving search engine optimization, which is the practice of designing the content and structure of a website so that it will rank well. White hat practices are those that ethical and allowed by search engines, while black hat are designed to unethically manipulate rankings for its personal improvement. Because our client's website is newly introduced, it is important for our team to understand these differences and act under the white hat practices. Not only will black hat techniques mar the reputation of our client's website, but search engines can temporarily penalize websites that don't act accordingly, which may hurt our client's online business.
Although I feel my conceptual understanding of these topics is thorough, my next goal is to be able to actively and correctly apply these concepts to the work my group and I will accomplish with our client.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a site that allows a viewer to analyze a percentage of Google web searches to determine how many searches have been done for the terms one has entered in comparison to the total number of Google searches done during that time. This, however, only concerns popular searches. The main benefit for Google Trends, for our purposes, is that it closely relates to an AdWords account. This means that an owner of an AdWords account is able to track how successful their chosen search terms are in comparison to all of the searched terms on Google during a selected time.
As our group will be in charge of a Google AdWords account, this will aid us in choosing terms that are very popular versus those that may not yield a desired amount search. Using this tool will also allow us to track the success of our chosen search terms throughout the competition.
Think With Google
Think with Google is a dynamic website that allows professionals to have forward-looking perspectives on specific sectors of business. This site divides the global span of business into different sectors of industry. In the case of our client, I would most closely identify it as a business-to-business company. On their business-to-business page, they post articles, infographics, case studies, and data collections. The combined information will add to our groups success greatly as it will allow us to gain insight in this sector of business. Understanding the current business-to-business landscape will only give more knowledge into the intricacies of our client's company.
Google Market Finder
This is an online application that helps a professional find new markets for one's products and services. It combines Google Search, Google Translate, and AdWords to compare the cost of acquiring a new customers with one's product margins and help determine whether reaching customers in a new market is good for business.
I feel this tool, unlike the others, will not add to our client's business because it is a very localized and customizable service. Because this client is fully involved in developing and implementing each service, it would not benefit them to expand their business to the global market financially.
In addition to this, I learned the differences between white hat and black hat SEO practices. SEO practices are those involving search engine optimization, which is the practice of designing the content and structure of a website so that it will rank well. White hat practices are those that ethical and allowed by search engines, while black hat are designed to unethically manipulate rankings for its personal improvement. Because our client's website is newly introduced, it is important for our team to understand these differences and act under the white hat practices. Not only will black hat techniques mar the reputation of our client's website, but search engines can temporarily penalize websites that don't act accordingly, which may hurt our client's online business.
Although I feel my conceptual understanding of these topics is thorough, my next goal is to be able to actively and correctly apply these concepts to the work my group and I will accomplish with our client.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a site that allows a viewer to analyze a percentage of Google web searches to determine how many searches have been done for the terms one has entered in comparison to the total number of Google searches done during that time. This, however, only concerns popular searches. The main benefit for Google Trends, for our purposes, is that it closely relates to an AdWords account. This means that an owner of an AdWords account is able to track how successful their chosen search terms are in comparison to all of the searched terms on Google during a selected time.
As our group will be in charge of a Google AdWords account, this will aid us in choosing terms that are very popular versus those that may not yield a desired amount search. Using this tool will also allow us to track the success of our chosen search terms throughout the competition.
Think With Google
Think with Google is a dynamic website that allows professionals to have forward-looking perspectives on specific sectors of business. This site divides the global span of business into different sectors of industry. In the case of our client, I would most closely identify it as a business-to-business company. On their business-to-business page, they post articles, infographics, case studies, and data collections. The combined information will add to our groups success greatly as it will allow us to gain insight in this sector of business. Understanding the current business-to-business landscape will only give more knowledge into the intricacies of our client's company.
Google Market Finder
This is an online application that helps a professional find new markets for one's products and services. It combines Google Search, Google Translate, and AdWords to compare the cost of acquiring a new customers with one's product margins and help determine whether reaching customers in a new market is good for business.
I feel this tool, unlike the others, will not add to our client's business because it is a very localized and customizable service. Because this client is fully involved in developing and implementing each service, it would not benefit them to expand their business to the global market financially.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Takeaway Post: Discover GOMC and Pre-Preparation Course
The Google Online Marketing Challenge, GOMC, is characterized as competition in which students from around the world create online marketing campaigns using Google Adwords. With a budget of $250.00, students develop an Adwords campaign with the goal of attracting the most amount of traffic flow for the company they are advertising. In order to be eligible and prepared for the GOMC, Google has outline criteria on their "Discover GOMC" and "Pre-Course Preparation" pages.
In order to fully prepared for the GOMC, the competitors must have a Google account and the company must have an online presence. Google emphasizes an online presence for each company because it is a method to effective communicate with customers, to give potential customers information on the company, and to conduct business transactions through e-commerce. The competitors must be in groups of three to six members, and those in undergraduate or graduate programs pursuing any majors may compete. Each group must be registered with a faculty member to oversee the actions and progress taken by the teams.
The "Discover GOMC" outlines nine steps in order to be a standing member in the competition process. Students must first register for the challenge as a team and access a Student Dashboard. Then they must work with a business to properly identify words that reflect their company. This is extremely important because AdWords depends solely on words, and if the words chosen do not accurately represent the client's company, their products, or their image, consumers will be unable to find them. Once this is complete, the team then turns in a Pre-Campaign Report and requests crediting in order to receive recognition for the campaign. The campaign then commences and teams spend 21 calendar days and $250 to run their AdWords. Following the competition teams submit their Post-Campaign reports which outline the success of the team's campaign. Once submitted, Google judges chose winners and awards.
The process of GOMC is very direct and simple, which may allow for increased creativity and diversification between teams. I am very interested to first work with the companies to focus on their image and needs, and then represent them through AdWords.
In order to fully prepared for the GOMC, the competitors must have a Google account and the company must have an online presence. Google emphasizes an online presence for each company because it is a method to effective communicate with customers, to give potential customers information on the company, and to conduct business transactions through e-commerce. The competitors must be in groups of three to six members, and those in undergraduate or graduate programs pursuing any majors may compete. Each group must be registered with a faculty member to oversee the actions and progress taken by the teams.
The "Discover GOMC" outlines nine steps in order to be a standing member in the competition process. Students must first register for the challenge as a team and access a Student Dashboard. Then they must work with a business to properly identify words that reflect their company. This is extremely important because AdWords depends solely on words, and if the words chosen do not accurately represent the client's company, their products, or their image, consumers will be unable to find them. Once this is complete, the team then turns in a Pre-Campaign Report and requests crediting in order to receive recognition for the campaign. The campaign then commences and teams spend 21 calendar days and $250 to run their AdWords. Following the competition teams submit their Post-Campaign reports which outline the success of the team's campaign. Once submitted, Google judges chose winners and awards.
The process of GOMC is very direct and simple, which may allow for increased creativity and diversification between teams. I am very interested to first work with the companies to focus on their image and needs, and then represent them through AdWords.
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