SEO – SEM – PLA INTEGRATION (Why and How to)

September 25, 2014

OVERVIEW

• SEO can be a highly profitable marketing channel for brands and agencies and there has been a large surge in traditional agencies developing SEO practices to serve their clients.

• Despite the generally high ROI it provides, SEO still doesn’t have the same “brand” recognition as other digital channels (SEM, PLA, Display).

• This presentation demonstrates the value of integrating with SEM create incremental lift for both campaigns that creates brand awareness for brands and each stage of the customer journey.• About Piston Agency• Understanding SEO and SEM performance contribution• How media budgets are planned within an agency• SEO / SEM Integration (Why and How to)

• How Piston does this• Value to the client and agency

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ABOUT PISTON AGENCY

• Piston is a full-service agency with clients in retail, travel, entertainment and more.

• Primary offerings: SEO, SEM, Display, creative/branding, web development, analytics, social and media buying

• Flagship clients include Chico’s FAS, Cars.com, Avoya Travel, Yakult and Sony

• Headquartered in San Diego with an additional location in New York

• Proud winner of Five National Addy Awards and 13 San Diego Addy Awards

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SEO PERFORMANCE CONTRIBUTION

‣ SEO is a strong site performance contributor

• Average client performance

• ~30% of total site traffic

• ~20-25% of total site conversion (orders, revenue, etc.)

‣ How does paid media perform?

• Average client performance

• ~40% of total site traffic

• ~30-35% of total site conversion (orders, revenue, etc.)

‣ Both channels target the same user behavior and compete for the same clicks

‣ Google’s UI attracts clicks from both channels and shifts the top organic ranking depending on the query type

• Local, carousel, video, branded, mobile Source: Mediative

‣ SEO is a hub that supports all marketing channels (online and offline)

• TV, PR, Social, Display, SEM, etc.

• SEO acts as an assist and acquisition channel (creates a brand footprint) at all stages of the customer journey

• Many times creates awareness in early stages and converts as a last-touch

• Most brands will only budget SEM and PLAs as an acquisition channel

• Head terms can be too expense for SEM

• Most media campaigns have a limited shelf-life, SEO provides long-term return

• SEO is a lower cost acquisition channel

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WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE?

Google Search Demand Growth: Chase Freedom

MORE BUDGET USUALLY IS ALLOCATED TO OTHER DIGITAL CHANNELS:

‣Piston Avg. Digital Ad Budget by Medium Benchmark

• SEM/PLA – 50%

• Display – 30%

• SEO – 15%

• Affiliate – 5-10%

‣From an agency perspective, tactical and strategic integration are key for optimal client performance, growth and retention

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CHALLENGE FOR SEO

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SEO / SEM INTEGRATION

‣ Maximize brand SERP exposure

• SEO can help reduce acquisition cost for top-of-funnel terms (CPC examples and acquisition cost)

• Example: “best buy hp computer laptops”

• 20 searches x $131.87 = $2,637.49 cost

• Avg. laptop price = ~ $700

• ~ loss = $1,937.40

‣ Critical to optimize each channel

• Reduce acquisition cost

• Reduce loss of sale to competitor

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SEO / SEM INTEGRATION (Why?)

Overall, the best performance (revenue, orders and clicks) occur when SEO and SEM have strong side-by-side comparison. Performance drops significantly as SEO positioning declines for both SEO and SEM.

Source: SEO/SEM Whitepaper, ClickZLive, apr. 2014

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SEO / SEM INTEGRATION (How to)

SET-UP

1. Set-up PPC vs. Organic and PLA vs. Organic in your account

1. The SEM data may be stored in a variety of places (Adwords, Kenshoo, Marin, other)

2. Ensure GWT click data is integrated for SEO Entrances

3. Set the view of at least 90 days

4. Select all metric options

1. Organic metrics will be low due to Term Not Provided

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SEO / SEM INTEGRATION (How to)

ALIGN METRICS AND FIND UNTRACKED KEYWORDS

1. Sort the PPC and Organic metric (conversions) in descending order

2. Export the list to excel

3. Identify untracked keywords

4. Add untracked keywords to temporary keyword tag and add to system

1. Enables easy management of these terms

5. Take the rest of the day off and wait for the ranking data to come back

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SEO / SEM INTEGRATION (How to)

WAKE-UP AND EXPORT THE REFRESHED DATA

1. Sort the PPC and Organic metric (conversions) in descending order

2. Export the list to excel

3. What to expect:

SEM – (heavy brand – text ads can push down SEO, esp. mobile)

PLA – (no rank data, heavy non-brand, visuals take clicks from SEM and SEO, product retail only) – unearths new non-brand opportunities

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SEO / SEM INTEGRATION (How to)

HOW WE USE THE DATA

1. Identify the sweet spot

1. SEO rankings (top 3)

2. SEM (avg. rank 1-1.7)

3. PLA no rank (a lot of spot checking)

2. What’s not so sweet

1. SEO rankings (4-10, page 2, page 3 and beyond

2. SEM avg. rank (1 - 1.7, remaining page 1 and beyond)

3. Review data where SEO listings are within-the-fold

1. Ranks 1 (mobile), 1-2, 1-3 (head terms)

2. Ranks 1-4, 1-6/8 (longer tail)

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SEO / SEM INTEGRATION (How to)

WHAT IS THERE?

1. Brand / non-brand

2. What are the metrics

WHAT IS NOT THERE? (lower ranks)

3. How to close the gap?

4. How to improve visibility?

5. How to improve CTR, conversions?

CREATE ACTION ITEMS FOR BOTH CHANNELS

• SEO and SEM, SEO only, SEM only

• Optimization

• Create content

• Create new SEM/PLA campaigns based on SEO data

FORECAST SEO PERFORMANCE FOR NON-PERFORMING TERMS

• Isolate by keyword tag for accuracy

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SEO / SEM INTEGRATION (Benefits)

• Glean new data for strategic insights

• Keyword expansion

• Content, optimization

• Launch new SEM campaigns

• New client strategy

• Increased campaign efficiencies

• Lower acquisition cost

• Improved SEM quality score

• Win new business

• Recommend at least quarterly

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KEY TAKEAWAYS• SEO is a highly profitable marketing channel that provides great returns for

clients

• SEO many times does not have the internal awareness that of other digital marketing channels, nor the same budgets

• SEO/SEM/PLA campaigns perform better when they are jointly positioned

• As SEO rankings decline, so does the performance for all channels

• Set-up in SEO Clarity requires GWT and PPC data integration

• View the data that makes the most sense for your organization

• Top 3, 4-10, within-the-fold

• Create action items and implement (optimization, create content, new SEM campaigns)

• Maximize top visibility, close the gap of low performing keywords

• Leverage data for on-going strategy

• Recommend at least quarterly

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THANK YOU

Richard ChavezSr. Director, SEOPiston Agencyrchavez@PistonAgency.com www.PistonAgency.com

Blog:http://www.pistonagency.com/blog

Twitter: @PistonAgency@richardachavez

SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/richardachavez

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