Smarter SEO beats bigger Adwords budgets

It was just a few years ago we were introducing our sometimes skeptical clients to the cost efficiencies of online search in their marketing mix. It didn’t take long for them to become converts, with conversion rates so much higher than press and radio advertising. It was as simple as buying category keywords prospects were searching for when researching a purchase decision. For one client in particular, a cosmedic company, a Google Adword campaign was delivering sales for under $30 when traditionally they were resigned to having to spend upward of $400 per sale using press ads. Like most things in the world today, things have changed very quickly.

Google Adwords not the cheap fix it once was

While our clients were at the front of the adoption curve, plenty of followers have made online adword campaigns much less cost effective. Google is in the unique position in Australia of having a controlling share of the search engine market. While in Asia players such as MSN offer advertisers alternative places to reach prospects, here 90% of all people who search online use Google. So if you are an advertiser, you are competing with every one of your competitors for the same limited listing in a limitless bidding war. If you want to be on the first page of results, the same words we bought for cents a few years ago can now cost dollars. Our client who used to be able to grab sales conversions for $30 and below would now have to regularly expect to pay $150 or more. Meanwhile, newspapers are doing deals, so the gap for many advertisers is closing again. Or is it? What are the advertisers at the front of the curve doing?

Natural search is the answer to gaining exposure online

At UNO we’ve been delivering our clients what is close to free leads for years now using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques. How does it work? A Google search page has three sections. Paid results appear across the top and down the right side of the screen. This is what advertisers bid against each other for. Yet research has shown 75% of all people who search on Google ignore the paid ads and click on the results in the third area, the natural or organic listing in the main body of the page.

So while the majority of companies are still competing in a bidding war for 25% of the prospects, smart advertisers are using SEO experts to help them achieve a higher listing in the main game, the natural search listings that you don’t have to keep paying for again and again. Done right, SEO for natural search pays long term dividends.

Here is the news in mass media marketing

A few weeks ago I cancelled my daily newspaper subscription. Not because of the increasing use of bad puns in headlines, a direct result of the publisher subbing out writing to young graduates to lower costs and supposedly bring a youthful feel to the paper. No, I cancelled on the day the business section shrunk to just three pages of mostly superficial stories.

I’m not alone, an associate cancelled his subscription because of the increase in typos and doubling up of stories in different sections.  

While once loyal readers are deserting, publishers are desperately trying to entice. The same paper gave me a free 10-week subscription when I signed up to a wine club the following week. I read online free from the same masthead. Since 2001 the Media Alliance estimates that the number of full-time journalists working on Australian newspapers has fallen by 13 per cent or roughly 1000 to 7500.

The hen and egg question of what came first – the thinness of content or the decrease in advertising to underwrite good journalism, is superseded by the issue of where have the readers gone?

Online, just like you.

The news in the last few months is an indication the tipping point is here…there are lists, (found online in seconds) of the latest closures around the world, from Colorado’s oldest paper, The Rocky Mountain News to The Boston Globe.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers latest survey predicts global newspaper decline of 10.2% this year.

What does the decrease in readership of press mean to mass marketers?

Well there’s no refuge in TV. The diminishing returns of this medium in Australia, where the cost per thousand eyeballs doubled over a seven year period while the number of potential viewers declined by 20% means ever diminishing returns for TV ads.

Yet there are still people who spruik packaged TV ad formats that exclaim “Brand News” on TV is more effective? Than what, bad brand ads on TV? Either way, with fewer viewers for greater expense than ever before, the high cost of entry to producing and running ads on TV are driving marketers away. While a FinReview survey of marketers indicated they are sticking with TV ads for their brand marketing, the long term media spend trends show doing the same as before is on the way out.

Australian online ad spend is up 14 percent to an annual $1.4 billion

The smart marketing investment is micro-managed across dozens of touch points, from the web to activation at point of sale.  The smart marketer is looking for measurable results, insightful strategies and creative that cuts through and adds value in a sea of clutter.

Smarter SEO beats bigger Adwords budgets

It was just a few years ago we were introducing our sometimes skeptical clients to the cost efficiencies of online search in their marketing mix. It didn’t take long for them to become converts, with conversion rates so much higher than press and radio advertising. It was as simple as buying category keywords prospects were searching for when researching a purchase decision. For one client in particular, a cosmedic company, a Google Adword campaign was delivering sales for under $30 when traditionally they were resigned to having to spend upward of $400 per sale using press ads. Like most things in the world today, things have changed very quickly.

Google Adwords not the cheap fix it once was

While our clients were at the front of the adoption curve, plenty of followers have made online adword campaigns much less cost effective. Google is in the unique position in Australia of having a controlling share of the search engine market. While in Asia players such as MSN offer advertisers alternative places to reach prospects, here 90% of all people who search online use Google. So if you are an advertiser, you are competing with every one of your competitors for the same limited listing in a limitless bidding war. If you want to be on the first page of results, the same words we bought for cents a few years ago can now cost dollars. Our client who used to be able to grab sales conversions for $30 and below would now have to regularly expect to pay $150 or more. Meanwhile, newspapers are doing deals, so the gap for many advertisers is closing again. Or is it? What are the advertisers at the front of the curve doing?

Natural search is the answer to gaining exposure online

At UNO we’ve been delivering our clients what is close to free leads for years now using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques. How does it work? A Google search page has three sections. Paid results appear across the top and down the right side of the screen. This is what advertisers bid against each other for. Yet research has shown 75% of all people who search on Google ignore the paid ads and click on the results in the third area, the natural or organic listing in the main body of the page.

So while the majority of companies are still competing in a bidding war for 25% of the prospects, smart advertisers are using SEO experts to help them achieve a higher listing in the main game, the natural search listings that you don’t have to keep paying for again and again. Done right, SEO for natural search pays long term dividends.

Here is the news in mass media marketing

A few weeks ago I cancelled my daily newspaper subscription. Not because of the increasing use of bad puns in headlines, a direct result of the publisher subbing out writing to young graduates to lower costs and supposedly bring a youthful feel to the paper. No, I cancelled on the day the business section shrunk to just three pages of mostly superficial stories.

I’m not alone, an associate cancelled his subscription because of the increase in typos and doubling up of stories in different sections.  

While once loyal readers are deserting, publishers are desperately trying to entice. The same paper gave me a free 10-week subscription when I signed up to a wine club the following week. I read online free from the same masthead. Since 2001 the Media Alliance estimates that the number of full-time journalists working on Australian newspapers has fallen by 13 per cent or roughly 1000 to 7500.

The hen and egg question of what came first – the thinness of content or the decrease in advertising to underwrite good journalism, is superseded by the issue of where have the readers gone?

Online, just like you.

The news in the last few months is an indication the tipping point is here…there are lists, (found online in seconds) of the latest closures around the world, from Colorado’s oldest paper, The Rocky Mountain News to The Boston Globe.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers latest survey predicts global newspaper decline of 10.2% this year.

What does the decrease in readership of press mean to mass marketers?

Well there’s no refuge in TV. The diminishing returns of this medium in Australia, where the cost per thousand eyeballs doubled over a seven year period while the number of potential viewers declined by 20% means ever diminishing returns for TV ads.

Yet there are still people who spruik packaged TV ad formats that exclaim “Brand News” on TV is more effective? Than what, bad brand ads on TV? Either way, with fewer viewers for greater expense than ever before, the high cost of entry to producing and running ads on TV are driving marketers away. While a FinReview survey of marketers indicated they are sticking with TV ads for their brand marketing, the long term media spend trends show doing the same as before is on the way out.

Australian online ad spend is up 14 percent to an annual $1.4 billion

The smart marketing investment is micro-managed across dozens of touch points, from the web to activation at point of sale.  The smart marketer is looking for measurable results, insightful strategies and creative that cuts through and adds value in a sea of clutter.