5 RULES TO MAXIMIZE PPC, SEO & SOCIAL:

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1 5 RULES TO MAXIMIZE PPC, SEO & SOCIAL: HOW THE SMARTEST MARKETERS INTEGRATE ONLINE STRATEGIES Facebook.com/wpromote Twitter.com/wpromote Find Us On Google+

2 Wpromote.com 2 INTEGRATED ONLINE STRATEGIES: 5 Actionable Rules AS WE MOVE FIRMLY INTO THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2012, THERE IS LITTLE DOUBT ABOUT ONE THING THAT HAS GONE FROM A SLOW CREEP OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS TO A FULL GALLOP: THE INTEGRATION OF SEARCH, SOCIAL, DISPLAY AND . The thesis of this whitepaper is that by investing in integrated strategies across these interwoven platforms, your online marketing campaigns can produce results far in excess of the sum of their parts. At A Glance... STRATEGY 1 STRATEGY 2 STRATEGY 3 STRATEGY 4 Always Invest in an Integrated SEO and PPC Effort Integrate Facebook Like and Google +1 Buttons Into Your Site Dominate SEO Results by Being Active on Google+ Use PPC Text Ads as a Testing Ground for Messaging STRATEGY 5 Use PPC Results to Help Define SEO Keyword Strategy with the Highest ROI

3 Wpromote.com 3 STRATEGY 1 ALWAYS INVEST IN AN INTEGRATED SEO AND PPC EFFORT More often than not, companies expend resources and excel in either organic SEO, or in PPC for their website, but for a variety of reasons, rarely invest and excel in both. On the SEO front, efforts here result in free traffic, with value that potentially lasts in perpetuity. However, the results can take many weeks and sometimes many months, the outcome of your efforts are unknown, and if you are especially dependent on SEO for traffic, small shifts in ranking algorithms can have very damaging effects. In short, clients that depend on SEO for a dominant source of traffic average fewer hours of sleep than those with a balanced SEO/PPC effort. Sometimes, with older, established sites where SEO has historically driven results, it is difficult to swallow paying for individual users through PPC that don t create residual value, because the sweet fruit of free SEO clicks has been tasted. In contrast, it is very common with newer startups to feel that SEO is a daunting undertaking with unknown outcomes. The pressure that is applied to produce results today trumps investing in the longer term gains from SEO. Oh so often, however, the weeks turn to months and companies find they have missed their opportunity to enjoy the benefits that come with investing in SEO early in the process. The individual advantages to PPC as well as SEO are fairly well known. With PPC, you see instant results, you have full control over ad copy as well as landing page design, and can test messaging fluidly. These benefits are especially pronounced during peak seasons, sales, promotions, and key dates since you can customize messaging to reflect those themes and significantly boost conversion rates and results. On the downside, you pay for each and every visitor to your site, and the results immediately cease with no residual value in new client acquisition when a campaign is not active. PPC SEO 1 Integrated PPC & SEO Pros Instant results Control over copy and landing page Higher conversion rates with sales, specials, and seasonality Traffic is free Investment today results in long-term value Incremental lift of organic/paid double listings Reaching additional users biased to organic or paid Results today and long term compounded results Cons Expensive No residual results Results take time Future ROI unknown Difficult to execute Required ongoing investment

4 Wpromote.com 4 An integrated SEO/PPC effort obviously combines the benefits of SEO and PPC, creating an ROI that steadily rises over time as SEO campaigns produce results. However, there are two additional benefits to an integrated campaign that are far less understood. THE SPONSORED LINK/ORGANIC LINK BIAS THE MYSTERIOUS LIFT OF DOUBLE RESULTS The second often-unknown benefit of appearing in both paid and organic spots in the search results page is the lift in total CTR and traffic from appearing twice in the search results. The theory on the behavioral side is that when users see the same website multiple times in the search results it reinforces the authority and brand of the site. This results in an incremental lift above the expected combined CTR s. Have you ever heard a friend exclaim, I never click on those paid links!. This declaration may be true, but others find themselves clicking on those paid links, because in part those are the only relevant links they were looking to find that could be seen above the fold of the search results page. Regardless of the conscious or subconscious reasoning behind it, a 2011 survey by Wpromote found that an estimated 20-30% of users nearly exclusively find themselves choosing to click on only organic or only paid listings. The clear implication of this is that with a strategy that leaves either SEO or PPC partly or totally ignored, you are simply failing to reach an important segment of your audience % of users exclusively click on organic listings or paid listings Only SEO Listings Only PPC Listings Both SEO + PPC #1 SEO CTR #1 PPC CTR Total CTR 18% 0% 18% 0% 10% 10% 20% 12% 32% The Organic/Paid Double-Listing Produced 4% More Total Clicks Based on Average of Recent Wpromote Client Results. While the above chart is representative and individual results will widely vary, in nearly every measured circumstance there is a degree of incremental lift beyond the expected summation of the individual SEO and PPC CTR s.

5 Wpromote.com 5 The emarketer study shown here solidly supports this assertion from a conversion perspective. Likelihood* of US Internet Users to Purchase a Brand s Products/Services, by Search/Ad Type Viewed, May 2010 % of respondents Note: *respondents who chose the top two boxes on a 7-point scale Source: iprospect, Real Branding implications of Digital Media - an SEM, SEO & Online Display Advertising Study conducted by comscore Inc, Nov 2, Key Takeaway #1 The highest performing search campaigns always contain a concerted PPC and SEO effort, driven in part by the incremental lift of double organic/paid listings for target keywords. Exposed to organic search and paid search Exposed to organic search and display ads Exposed to organic search, paid search and display ads Exposed to paid search and display ads Exposed to organic search only Exposed to paid search only Exposed to display ads only 20% 29% 26% 38% 37% 36% 34%

6 5 Rules To Maximize PPC, SEO & Social Media: How The Smartest Marketers Integrate Online Strategies Wpromote.com 6 STRATEGY 2 INTEGRATE FACEBOOK LIKE AND GOOGLE +1 BUTTONS INTO YOUR SITE Leading with this bold proclamation always provokes the biggest reaction, so let s get it out of the way: Google +1 is here, and it s huge, but that fact has nothing to do with evaluating Google+ as a social network. Google has a billion people per month who search on their site. All of those results, paid and organic, are now able to be combined by Google with what we call social endorsements, otherwise known as those little pictures of your friends and an endorsement that they have The Parallel Facebook/Bing Relationship The takeaways mentioned here about the Google+/Google relationship can be applied to Facebook/Bing. Bing search results integrate social endorsements when your Facebook friends have liked something related to your search. While Bing has a smaller market share, the number of connections users have on Facebook makes this a very important interaction. liked or +1 d some piece of content. The takeaway is simple: implementing a like and +1 strategy will boost your SEO rankings and even lower your PPC costs. However, it is key to understand that this is a correlation not a direct causation. Adding +1 buttons to the product pages on your ecommerce store does not cause Google to increase your organic rankings. However, as users click those +1 buttons, it causes future users connected to those users (through circles or even just as Gmail contacts) to be exposed to that social endorsement. +Jenny Search Images Maps YouTube News Gmail Documents Calendar More iced coffee with milk Search Everything Images Maps Perfect Iced Coffee The Pioneer Woman Cooks Ree Drummond thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/.../perfect-iced-coff... 8 hrs June 13, Iced coffee is my life. When I wake up, often around the time party animals on the west coast are just heading home, I start... Videos Affordable Pay Per Click Management Company PPC Advertising... Shopping Affordable Pay Per Click Management Company for Small Business Affordable PPC Advertising Services for Small Companies. El Segundo, CA Change location All results Related searches More search tools + Share Ads - Why these ads? Google PPC Advertising Use Google and Only Pay Per Click. Gain Customers In Minutes - Sign Up Iced Coffee with Milk Starbucks Coffee Company PPC Advertising Reach Millions of New Customers With PPC Ads on Bing. Sign Up! A cold coffee with milk from Starbucks... Freshly brewed Iced Coffee Looking for PPCStarbucks Mgmt Co.? PPC Management & SEO Search Engine Marketing Firm Wpromote Blend served chilled and slightly sweetended on ice. Tall 12oz, Grande 16oz... ebrandz.com is rated... Inc Rankings. Discover How Wpromote s PPC Management & SEO Deliver Results.... SocialBoost -- Facebook Advertising For Small Businesses... AdWords/Yahoo Certified PPC $234/M. Increase Your Sales. Free Analysis! Marcy Zuendel, Becky Eaton, Jenny Pauley and 18 other people +1 d this Michael Block shared this PPC Advertising Experts Iced coffee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/iced_coffee (February 2007). An iced cappuccino with dream on top. Iced coffee is a cold variant of the beverage coffee. Contents. 1 Preparation; 2 Serving; 3 Variations by... How to Make Iced Coffee > Food & Drink How to Make Iced Coffee. Whether you want to make it special or just have some leftover coffee from breakfast, iced coffee can be a refreshing afternoon treat. Starbucks VIA Iced Coffee Starbucks Store Jenny +1 s the Starbucks Iced Coffee with Milk 0 advertising.microsoft.com Iced Coffee with Milk Starbucks Coffee Company News More Jenny Pauley 180 personal results and 7,650,000 other results (0.56 seconds) Feb 4, Small business PPC Advertising. Small businesses can benefit from PPC ads. There is so much information out there about Google PPC ads,... Rank Above your Competitors. Gain Quality Traffic & Instant Results. A cold coffee with milk from Starbucks... Freshly brewed Starbucks Iced Coffee Blend served chilled and slightly sweetended on ice. Tall 12oz, Grande 16oz... Marcy Zuendel, Becky Eaton, Jenny Pauley and 18 other people +1 d this PPC Grader for SMBs Grade Your AdWords Account Free. Anonymous and Confidential. Try it! Subscribe Privacy $100 Free PPC Credit Higher CTR Lower Cost $100 Free Adwords PPC Credit! No Commitment Contact Us & Try Free When Jenny s friend John, searches for Iced Coffee, Jenny s +1 and social endorsement shows up Don t Use Pay Per Click 1 (855) Before You Check Out JumpFly. Pro Management-Money Back Guarantee Free Business Advertising Grow Your Business Overnight. Run a LivingSocial Deal. Apply Now! See your ad here >> John is far more likely to click the link with Jenny s social endorsement Higher clickthrough rate will improve SEO rankings and lower PPC costs

7 5 Rules To Maximize PPC, SEO & Social Media: How The Smartest Marketers Integrate Online Strategies This increases the likelihood they click on that listing, and in turn causes Google to increase the rankings of that site because the listing is garnering Wpromote.com STRATEGY 3 (due to the social endorsement) a higher CTR than Google expects in that DOMINATE SEO RESULTS BY BEING ACTIVE ON GOOGLE+ position. Many marketers have taken a wait and see attitude towards Google, for better or worse, has bet the farm on Google+ and the extraordinary Google+. The smartest marketers, however, are embracing the powerful cycle of interactions we are exposing, and they are already enjoying the traffic and conversion boosts this strategy provides. 7 influence that social media now has in the Google search results. Whether we agree or don t agree with the strategy, Google s utter dominance in search and the importance of search in any online marketing campaign requires! Key Takeaway #2 The more people that have the opportunity to +1 or Like your content, the larger the ecosystem of social endorsements, and the bigger the impact it will have on PPC, SEO and conversion rate. that we too, move our bets to their horse. Google+ profiles allow individuals and businesses to maintain a profile, post pictures, link to articles, microblog and otherwise engage in an experience that is overwhelmingly Facebook-like. Again, while we don t think there is any debate that Facebook is in no way going to be overtaken (nor should they be all that threatened) by Google+, the extent to which Google is presently integrating these social results into the regular search results is astounding, and is sufficient motivation for smart businesses to invest in their Google+ profile, communication and community engagement. Whether you are a big brand or a marketer looking to be heard, Google+ is an increasingly important place to get involved.

8 5 Rules To Maximize PPC, SEO & Social Media: How The Smartest Marketers Integrate Online Strategies Wpromote.com The following is a simple illustration of what Google results look like after the One of the few individuals in the user s circles is, a well-known Search, plus Your World update. The user that searched this example has a marketer and writer, who is very active on Google+. Observe the extent to which relatively basic Google+ profile, they rarely post or participate, and have only a the user s search results are utterly dominated by Scoble s posts, pictures and links handful of connections. We believe that this example user profile is an exceedingly for a generic, unrelated term such as vegas : 8 common one on Google+. +Jenny Search Images Maps YouTube News Gmail Documents Calendar Nearly every non-paid area of this search results page contains Scoble s content: More vegas Jenny Pauley Search Everything Images Maps Videos News Shopping More More search tools Share his pictures, his news stories, and his individual posts. All for a topic (vegas) that is 130 personal results and 992,000,000 other results (0.62 seconds) Ads - Why these ads? VEGAS.com (Official Site) 64 seller reviews Book Vegas Hotels, Shows & More at the Official Vegas Travel Site. Las Vegas Shows Las Vegas Hotels Vegas Deals Vacation Packages Las Vegas Tours Cirque du Soleil hardly related to the topics that he generally speaks to (marketing). Ads - Why these ads? Las Vegas Flights & Hotel Daily Vacation Specials. Great Savings on Vacations. Mandalay Bay Las Vegas Las Vegas Hotels 70% Off VegasView.com Discounts at Top Las Vegas Hotels Up To 70% Off Your Next Vegas Stay El Segundo, CA All results Related searches personal results and 992,000,000 other results (0.62 seconds) List of Las Vegas Hotels - Las Vegas Hotel Specials - Las Vegas Show Specials Change location 0 Special Las Vegas Deals Cheapflights.com Cheap Vacation Packages Las Vegas. Searching 100 s Sites Low Prices Book Flights & Hotels Together - Search Flights to Vegas by Date Images for vegas - Report images Las Vegas Las Vegas Hotels, Shows, Maps, Golf, Restaurants... Book a Low Vegas Room Rate with Mandalay Bay Starting From $129! While this is just a single illustration, the implication is clear: if this user was Las Vegas Hotels on Sale lasvegas.tripres.com/lasvegashotels 50% - 65% Off Top Las Vegas Hotels. Book Your Las Vegas Stay for Less. following your brand, and your brand had posted similar content, your content Las Vegas Travel Packages 65%* OFF - Las Vegas Travel Deals. Compare Las Vegas Deals & Save Big! would be making its way organically into the information that user consumes on Your official What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas resource. Find information on Las Vegas hotels, restaurants, golf courses and things to do at... Know the Code - Shows - Special Offers & Deals - Free Visitors Guide Google. Images for vegas - Report images The Google+ detractors will happily point out that most people on Google+ have few connections in "circles" and are not very active in posting articles, links and Vegas.com Going to Las Vegas? Welcome to the Official Vegas Travel Site. Find deals on Las Vegas Hotels, book tickets to Las Vegas shows and more at VEGAS.com. pictures. Ironically, this is the very fact that makes it so attractive for marketers to Shows - Las Vegas Hotels - Gambling - Air-hotel Las Vegas Hotels VEGAS.com Interview with Rob Thomas and video from his CES concert I have a... get involved; unlike Facebook, there is very little competition for the user s attention Find the best Las Vegas hotels at VEGAS.com. Browse our extensive selection of Las Vegas hotels by price, location and rating. Do Vegas Right. - Jan 16, Public (OfficialInterview City of Las Vegas with Web RobSite) Thomas and video from his CES concert. I have a bunch more services, CES neighborhoods, videos coming tonight, but here s the fun one. One Tuesday night my City government, and businesses. friend... (as the example so clearly illustrated). All summed up, this makes Interview with Rob Thomas and video from his CES concert I have a Jan 16, Public Interview with Rob Thomas and video from his CES concert. I have a bunch more CES videos coming tonight, but here s the fun one. One Tuesday night my friend... Google+ an ideal vehicle to significantly impact businesses that invest in growing their audience and engaging their community. Matchbox 20 in Las Vegas Matchbox 20 in Las Vegas comments comments - If it weren t for +Brett Schulte there would be no way I could either. He knows a ton of celebrities and the band s manager. - If it weren t for +Brett Schulte there would be no way I could either. He knows a ton of celebrities and the band s manager. OK +Sascha Pallenberg we gotta know, what you looing forward to Jan 5, Public! The It Won t Stay in Vegas party will bewe at the Tweet Houseknow, on January 11th, OK +Sascha Pallenberg gotta what you looing forward to from 6-8pm. Every year, The Parnassus Group hosts the It Won t Stay In V comments Robert Scoble - Jan 5, Public Scoble - Washington Post, er, +Joshua Topolsky, on what to TheRobert It Won t Stay in Vegas party will be at the Tweet House on January 11th, expect: from 6-8pm. Every year, The Parnassus Group hosts the It Won t Stay In V comments - Washington Post, er, +Joshua Topolsky, on what to expect:... A user s search results were dominated by Scoble s content, even though his area of expertise falls far outside of the search term vegas. Key Takeaway #3 If you are active on Google+ and work to grow your followers, you can have a powerful influence on their organic search results.

9 Wpromote.com 9 STRATEGY 4 USE PPC AND TEXT ADS AS A TESTING GROUND FOR MESSAGING When author Tim Ferris couldn t come to an agreement on his first book title, he famously dropped the endless boardroom debates, nixed expensive and timely focus groups, and took $100 to AdWords to test 10 possible titles. The ad with the highest CTR and the chosen title: The Four Hour Workweek. The 4-Hour Work Week Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, And Join The Newly Rich Become A Millionaire! Overworked? Learn How to Live Your Dream and Make Money! In the old world of media, if a brand was to engage in an advertising campaign, it would start by identifying ideas in a boardroom, then look to expensive and time consuming focus groups, and finally create TV ads, print, and at some point engage in digital with banner and display ads and finally PPC text ads. The 5 Hour Work Week The Most Innovative Business Person of 2007 Tells You How! Make Money & Have Fun! Millionaire Timothy Ferris Tells You How! Quit Your Job & Start Living! Sadly, this is still the way many larger companies are operating in 2012, which presents a significant opportunity for smarter, more nimble competitors to outperform. Live Your Dreams Now! Don t wait until you retire. Live your dreams now and make money! 8 Hour Work Week? Find Out How To Work Less & Earn More! Start Playing Today! Quite simply, this concept needs to be turned on its head in order to get to the right message, faster and cheaper than ever before. PPC text ads can be tested in a fraction of the time that it takes to even get a simple banner ad through the design process. A simple and quick PPC campaign helped author Tim Ferris determine the title of his next best-selling novel.

10 Wpromote.com 10 When asked what the value proposition and key differentiators of one's product, service or brand are, most marketers can list off a dozen reasons; but far fewer can list just one or two with confidence. Moreover, many times the company s answer varies significantly from the customers, which implies that the most effective message is many times not the one coming through in the marketing message. Using the magic 95-characters of text that defines a PPC ad, we can actually know the answer. Do people like your product because it is "fast acting" or "long lasting"? Do they appreciate your "huge selection" or prefer the "free shipping"? By utilizing PPC ads as a testing ground, for the first time you can, with virtually no time or money, definitively answer these questions. It can help to name products, choose company taglines, and even to name whitepapers! It is one of the most powerful and underutilized uses of PPC advertising.! Key Takeaway #4 Use PPC text ads as a testing ground to determine your messaging, then apply those to the rest of your marketing. STRATEGY 5 USE PPC RESULTS TO HELP DEFINE KEYWORD STRATEGY WITH THE HIGHEST ROI It is extraordinarily common when engaging in organic SEO strategy to focus on the biggest, seemingly most valuable keywords for content and inbound linking efforts. However, not even taking into account the fact that these easy-to-select keywords can be hyper-competitive to the point of potentially being fruitless to compete for, many times the keywords being selected are not the keywords that will produce the largest volume of sales or leads. If a company were selling men s pants online, the keyword research would likely indicate that men s pants is the highest volume keyword. However, focusing SEO efforts on pants, and even assuming those efforts achieved their results of high rankings, the company would have been far better off by focusing on a keyword like men s denim pants or buy men s khaki pants, despite smaller search volume. men s pants higher volume.05% conversion rate VS. buy men s khaki pants lower volume 1% conversion rate Many times, even though they have higher volume, more specific keywords have a significantly higher ROI because the conversion rate is so much greater.

11 Wpromote.com 11 WHY MOST POPULAR KEYWORDS HAVE A LOWER ROI: 1 Unless the company sells all types and styles of men s pants, at all price points, they are going to reach users that aren t going to find what they are looking for on their site, and those users are wasted. 2 Even if the company does sell the exact product that users are seeking, more generic terms are likely to be reaching users higher in the purchase funnel, who are significantly less likely to buy today. While the pants example is pretty intuitive, in most examples the logic is not as apparent. So then, what is the secret to selecting the right keywords? Turn to your PPC campaign, simply cherry-pick the highest performing keywords and then weigh them by their search volume to determine the highest value SEO keywords. When we do this analysis, we take it one step further and weigh those results by the difficulty and likelihood of actually achieving that SEO ranking to ultimately determine the keywords to focus on. CONCLUSION If the thesis of this paper is that effectively leveraging one aspect of your online marketing to inform others will create a total value greater than the sum of the parts, then the other running theme is that the answers, and many times the biggest opportunity, is hidden in plain sight. The correct SEO keyword strategy? It s right there in your PPC data. The perfect banner ad? Look to your text ads. Want that boost in SEO? Just turn to your basic social media efforts. With an infinite amount of potential improvement to be had in your online marketing campaigns, there simply aren t enough hours in the day to do remotely as much as you d want to, so shortcutting processes, leveraging data, and understanding the direct and indirect effects that these interrelated concentrations have on each other is absolutely key to maximizing your results.! Key Takeaway #5 Use top performing PPC keywords weighted by search volume to guide SEO keyword strategy and steer clear of vanity keywords. So go forward, embrace an integrated vision, and you may find that those huge results you are seeking are closer than they appear. Please feel free to contact us with any questions, comments or feedback! facebook.com/wpromote + find us on Google+