FUTURE-PROOFING YOUR

SEARCH MARKETING

CAMPAIGN

ad:tech London Search Summit, 12th September 2013

Alan Boughen | SVP Global Search Director | Havas Media

FUTURE PROOFING YOUR PAID SEARCH CAMPAIGN

Precision targeting with Google Enhanced Campaigns Structured test for mobile

bid multipliers

Stack device/geo/time bid multipliers to precision target ‘always on’ users

Make the most of upgraded Sitelinks

Get ready for cross-device attribution & offline conversion tracking in Q4

Check and double-check your tracking

Everything is mobile

1/3 of all search will soon be mobile

Competitive keywords – approach with caution Google now allows bidding on

competitor trademark keywords in all worldwide markets (from Mar 2013)

“Just because we say you can do this, we’re not telling you that you should”

Interflora vs M&S UK judgement is very narrow

Decide how risk averse you are

vs.

Don’t believe the eBay hype

Search ads paused for branded & non-branded keywords

In both cases eBay claims it saw little or no impact on traffic or sales from ending the SEM campaigns.

Branded keywords - eBay argues that the impact of ending branded paid-search campaigns was negligible because people clicked on eBay’s organic links

Non-branded keywords -The company found a marginal traffic impact after discontinuing non-branded SEM but no impact on sales

The company argues that SEM only works in instances where consumers are nearly totally ignorant of a brand and its offerings

The Real Issue : eBay’s Paid Search Campaign ‘sucks’

FUTURE PROOFING YOUR ORGANIC SEARCH CAMPAIGN

How has Penguin 2.0 changed the SEO game? In all honesty it hasn't changed much – you

either play by the ‘rules’ or you don't.

Pleasingly, many of the spammy tactics that used to support rankings have reduced in impact but unfortunately some still work and are still used within the industry.

This is a risky game of brinksmanship as we expect Google to continue to shut down the use of these techniques with further Penguin updates, which will result in sites that use spam SEO techniques being penalised or seeing rankings fall dramatically.

Ongoing algorithm updates from the search engines highlight why it is vital to keep strategies fluid.

SEO & Social – the perfect couple

Critical to take an ethical approach to SEO focused on content and social media.

The algorithm and link building tactics are now much more on marketers’ radars

Marketers have become wiser to the 'rented' ranking game.

Over the last 6 months, authorship has become increasingly important.

Video SEO increasingly important

Video search is still very nascent but increasingly important (especially as YouTube now ranks as the 2nd largest global search engine).

SEO for video is similar to the old days of SEO for websites – optimising meta data is still the primary tactic.

YouTube’s Keyword tool enables marketers to understand how content is being searched for and how to optimise titles, descriptions and tags accordingly.

As Google moves away from ‘10 blue links’ on the SERP, it’s also important to maximise the number of links to the video and sites that embed the video to improve its ranking in Google organic search.

In addition to these basics, you can also explore video sitemaps and uploading the video script to provide context to the video content.

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

Integrating SEO & PPC

Marketers are increasingly focusing on SEO/PPC integration

Understanding the effect of dialling down budgets in particular areas of their paid search campaign (e.g. branded keywords) and re-deploying budget in other areas (e.g. on non-branded/generic keywords).

Prepare for Search to get more natural & conversational

“I wouldn’t be surprised if, in a year or two, we’ll see a much broader conversation happening within search — where users can talk to a search engine as if they’re talking to a person.”- Amit Singhal, Google

THANK YOUalan.boughen@havasmedia.com

@alanboughen

www.havasmedia.com