Archive of B2B Posts

Why 27?

Because, after hours and hours of searching, and using Google Alerts for months, that is how many worthwhile articles I have found regarding Blogging ROI so far. I’m sure there are more out there, and I hope that if you know of an additional resource that you will provide that as a comment to this post.

Why have I looked so hard for resources about this topic? Because getting marketers and C-level executives to put corporate blogging on the front burner is so darn difficult.

For those of you interested in calculating Pay Per Click (PPC) projections, I have created a basic PPC calculator that is available for download (click on the “PPC Calculator” link to download the Excel file).

There are two worksheets in the file - one for B2B Lead Generation and one for E-Commerce.

Each calculator requires a series of inputs from you in order to calculate the primary metric - Target Cost Per Acquisition (in each case, B2B & B2C).

You can use the calculators to focus on an entire program, a specific campaign, a specific ad group, or specific keyword.

Yesterday I was interviewed for a podcast by Ken Rayment from Better Process Podcast.  The title of the Podcast is Industry Report Andy Komack Komarketing Associates (has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?).  The “industry” referenced here is small and medium-sized manufacturing companies in the U.S.

Ken, a manufacturing engineer with a Six Sigma Black Belt, asked to interview me after reading the How Strong is Your Brand Online? article in IndustryWeek.com.

The Podcast focuses on how manufacturing companies can leverage online marketing techniques to remain competitive (both in the U.S. and abroad).

We covered themes such as:

We have been running a Google AdWords campaign for some time promoting KoMarketing Associates’ focus on B2B SEO.

I thought it would be interesting to share a small portion of the data we have collected.

The table below highlights search impressions for some of the keywords we have been advertising (but not all of course!).  The data was gathered from May 2007 through February 2008.  The data set is by no means complete. 

I’ve found that its common for advertisers to overstate the value of having a high Click Through Rate (CTR).

The fact of the matter is, that in and of itself, click through rate is useful is measuring how successful you are at engaging a particular audience with a specific ad message, but beyond that it does not necessarily translate to business results.

Lets First Take a Look at Some of the Benefits of Having a High CTR:
Click Through Rate is one of the most important (if not the most important) factor in Google’s Ad Rank formula. This means that CTR is very important in determining your Quality Score. This in turn affects several things:

Earlier this month I wrote a blog post titled “Why You Should Cut Back Search Marketing In a Recession“.

The title of the post was purposely provocative. 

I actually spent much of the article laying out reasons why other marketing/advertising methods are either more vulnerable to spending cutbacks, or are how search marketing can strengthen campaigns in other media.

I was happy to see that in a recent article on BtoBOnline that many of my assertions about spending decisions for B2B companies are being validated by B2B marketers themselves.

Brad Kenney, from IndustryWeek, just published an article today titled How Strong is Your Brand Online?

Brad interviewed me for the article and he generously provided readers with some of my thoughts on how manufacturers can benefit from search marketing (both SEO and PPC).

The three main sections of the article are:

• Use SEO (or Lose SEO)
• Content is King
• Pay-Per-Click Pays Off
   

The premise of the article is that “manufacturing companies have a growing opportunity to leverage their Web sites to generate more business, build customer loyalty, create brand awareness and gather market intelligence.”
 

The most prevalent difference between B2B and B2C paid search management is seen in what activity each type of client views as a conversion.

Evaluating Business to Consumer (B2C) Conversions

When a paid search campaign is pulling consumers to a landing page, the conversion action almost always results in traceable revenue. This data can be used to evaluate the return on investment generated by the paid search campaign, all the way down to the keyword level.

In this case it is very simple to set benchmarks & goals. We want to create as many sales as possible at the highest rate of return per sale.

I recently commented on an article written in Media Post’s Search Insider blog titled “What Does A Recession Mean For Your Search Program?”

My commentary took the perspective that search marketing is somewhat recession-proof (obviously I have a vested interest in this).  My plan was to write a blog post adding to that perspective. 

But, as I sat here thinking about what to write, I posed the question to myself - What are some factors that would PREVENT a company from using search marketing (as a tool) in a recession?

4 Reasons To Cut Back Your Search Marketing Budget

A big “thank you!” to Jill Whalen at High Rankings for allowing me to guest-author an article for her newsletter (published yesterday).  You can visit the HighRankings.com site to read the 5 Keyword Strategies for B2B PPC article.

I remember attending a session at SES Boston where Jill was speaking many moons ago (for those of you who follow the SES show circuit, you know Boston was ages ago - would be great if they’d come back).  I learned a ton in that session about SEO copywriting, and it was one of the early educational highlights for me in my SEO career.