beth morgan media director i’m my own worst competition! search engine strategies – chicago...

BETH MORGANMedia Director

I’M MY OWN WORST COMPETITION!Search Engine Strategies – Chicago

December 7, 2006

ONE DAY AT MegaPharm…

• You work at MegaPharm, and your boss has asked you to set up a search campaign for your new drug, Insbera

• All goes well until one day your boss comes in and says, “Our ad isn’t running!”

• You look on Google, and sure enough… no MegaPharm Insbera. However, there IS an ad for MegaPharm Xantix

MegaPharm is at war…with itself!

POTENTIAL SOURCES OF OWN-TEAM CONFLICT

• GENERATION GAP A corporate program that competes with business units and divisions

• SIBLING RIVALRY Inter-division competition• NEW KID SYNDROME Competition between divisions

added by M&A• WORLD CUP Regional or international divisions

competing with each other• Other potential sources of own-interest competition that

aren’t covered here: Affiliates Resellers

CHALLENGE AREAS

• Messaging

• Tracking & Reporting

• Keyword Research & Categorization

• Bidding

• Different divisions might have varying marketing approaches

Offers or benefits?

Short forms or long?

Promos or no?

Product shot or model shot?

• Presenting uncoordinated messages to the marketplace can obscure the larger message of the corporate parent

MESSAGING

or ?

TRACKING & REPORTING

• Does one division use HitBox to report analytics, while another uses Coremetrics, and a third uses Omniture?

• How will that affect the time it takes to report on campaigns?

• Does one division need weekly reports, while another is happy with quarterly?

• Should each division get a custom report, or is it easier to come up with a template they all can use?

How are you going to track it?

What should you report, and how often?

• Does one division consider a “conversion” to be a whitepaper download, while another considers a “conversion” to be a purchase?

• If you are comparing conversions across divisions, how can that be resolved?

What are you going to track?

KEYWORD RESEARCH & CATEGORIZATION

• Keyword research takes time! Without coordination, divisions can duplicate effort looking for the same words

• If different divisions are running campaigns, eventually you’ll want to compare cross-divisional results

• If divisions define their categories differently, and the categories contain different words, this sort of comparison is far more cumbersome

BIDDING

• Google, Yahoo, and MSN generally have a policy that only one paid ad from the same company will run at a time

• Lack of coordination can lead to irrational bidding and to paying more than necessary

• Also, campaign performance for individual units can erode as others within the same company compete for the same words Lists that were getting impressions might not anymore Messages that should be associated with certain terms

might not be

DUPES

HOW THE ENGINES HANDLE MULTIPLE BIDS

Risks

Method of enforcement

Enforcement

Relevance factors lessen

problems

Technology

High

Google

Direct bid model

exacerbates

Manual

Medium

Yahoo

Direct bid model

exacerbates

Manual

Medium

MSN

CHANGING

HOW CAN YOU BEAT THESE CHALLENGES?

CENTRALIZE

Identify one agency

partner or central in-

house manager

Monitor messaging

across programs

Create cross-divisional

benchmarks

Set up all campaigns

with the same

trackingCreate a central

database of terms

Coordinate bids in a rational fashion

HOW CAN YOU BEAT THESE CHALLENGES?

• Even if your company is starting search in just one division, assume it will spread

• Spend a little extra planning time now to think through the issues This will pay off in increased

operational efficiency later

THINK BIG

CASE STUDY

ADOBE SYSTEMS

MESSAGING

• Campaigns begun on individual product levels have been slowly unified at suite- or business-unit level

• Currently bringing campaigns for individual products that are part of the Creative Suite into Adobe’s larger “Faces Of…” marketing campaign

• Merging copy, landing page strategy to coordinate with campaign

• Also ties in with Adobe’s non-search marketing efforts

“Faces Of…”

TRACKING & REPORTING

• Moved from multiple tracking systems to one streamlined system Dramatically reduced time spent preparing reports

• Sat down with key players to identify a set of data that managers wanted to see each week and each month

KEYWORD SELECTION & CATEGORIZATION

• Built libraries of similar terms that could be re-used across campaigns Example: graphic designer terms & brand terms

Reduces time spent in keyword research

Minimizes changes/inaccuracies in campaigns

• Created “categories of categories” that work across all brands Larger themes that are flexible enough to cover all terms

Categories within that framework can be adapted to suit particular products

Always refer to existing groups in categorizing and naming categories

RBM KEYWORD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• Red Bricks created a keyword research and management tool to facilitate creation and administration of these keyword libraries

• Using common keywords across campaigns creates the need for managing bidding as well

Flash Brand Terms

Term 1Term 2Term 3Term 4Term 5

Flash Brand Terms

Term 1Term 2Term 3Term 4Term 5

InDesignInDesign

Creative ServicesCreative Services

PhotoShopPhotoShop IllustratorIllustrator Production StudioProduction Studio

Digital Video & WebDigital Video & Web

Studio 8Studio 8 AcrobatAcrobat

Knowledge WorkerKnowledge Worker

BreezeBreeze

Graphic Designer

Terms

Term 1Term 2Term 3Term 4Term 5

Graphic Designer

Terms

Term 1Term 2Term 3Term 4Term 5

Illustrator Brand Terms

Term 1Term 2Term 3Term 4Term 5

Illustrator Brand Terms

Term 1Term 2Term 3Term 4Term 5

Creative Suite Brand Terms

Term 1Term 2Term 3Term 4Term 5

Creative Suite Brand Terms

Term 1Term 2Term 3Term 4Term 5

Marketing Professional

Terms

Term 1Term 2Term 3Term 4Term 5

Marketing Professional

Terms

Term 1Term 2Term 3Term 4Term 5

Document Control Terms

Term 1Term 2Term 3Term 4Term 5

Document Control Terms

Term 1Term 2Term 3Term 4Term 5

implement & monitor

BIDDING

sort & strategize

Keyword Division 1 Division 2 Division 3

control blood pressure Xantix Nicatormegapharm Nicator Insbera Xantixxantix Xantix

prioritize

Category Division Value Priority

MegaPharm GeneralNicator High 1Insbera Medium 2Xantix Low 3

Blood Pressure ControlNicator High 2Insbera Medium 3Xantix High 1

identify duplicates

duplicatedatabase

consolidate

keyw

ords

BID MANAGEMENT TAKES TECHNOLOGY

RESULTS

• Over HALF A BILLION impressions since beginning of year

• 142% lift in average monthly clicks from 2005 to 2006

• Competitive terms have maintained steady CPC

Thank You!

Presentation available at:

http://www.redbricksmedia.com/ses2006/