NEMOA Speaker: Tracking Is Key to Paid Searches
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- The secret to successful paid searches is to "track everything," Alan Rimm-Kaufman said at the New England Mail Order Association spring conference here Friday."If you don't have tracking, you're just going to slam into a tree," said the vice president of marketing at Crutchfield, Charlottesville, VA. "You have to be able to see what you're paying and what you're getting. I can't stress that enough."
He also advised attendees to test search words and phrases broadly.
"You don't want to try two words and say, 'I tested Google,'" he said. "You want lots of words. It's the only way you're going to be successful. [And] the more specific the phrase, the better; and the longer the phrase, the better.
"You're only paying for a click-through, so these very-high-conversion words are the gold mine. Can you build a business on one? No. Can you build a business on lots of them? Yes."
Another important consideration is to select search words that take people as close to what they are looking for as possible.
"Never drop them on the home page," he said. "It's really not relevant to anything.
"A lot of people will first encounter your brand on a product page or an institutional page six layers deep in your site. They're going to glance at it for about two seconds and then they're either going to continue on your site or abandon it. Do you have your unique selling proposition on that page? People are no longer coming into your site and going through your 'beautiful tree.' People are coming into your site from all directions."
