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According to the UK Search Engine Marketing Report 2008, released today by E-consultancy in association with Search Engine Marketing agency Neutralize (*\*), the industry is thriving in the UK with 63% of companies planning to increase their paid search (PPC) budget and 61% planning to increase their search engine optimization (SEO) budget.

In a press release, Lucy Cokes, the Managing Director of Neutralize (*\*), said, “It appears evident that search engine marketing is now cemented in the minds and therefore budgets of UK marketers. It is fantastic to see a greater understanding of the benefits of a well managed search marketing campaign and budgets being increased accordingly across both paid and organic search.”

Now in its second year, the UK Search Engine Marketing Report is based on the results of a survey completed earlier in the year by more than 1,000 respondents from both agencies and companies with first-hand experience of search engine marketing.

One of the key trends found in the report is this one: Since 2007, the proportion of companies conducting PPC and SEO exclusively inhouse has declined. Correspondingly, the proportion of respondents using an agency for both disciplines has gone up.

For more information, go to http://www.neutralize.com/media-centre/research-reports.

Lately prospective clients have been coming around with extremely colorful and eerily similar Google PPC disaster stories. Cost are skyrocketing, conversions are plummeting, and attaining decent paid rankings is difficult or impossible. This threatens the viability of PPC itself as a marketing strategy.

At least a dozen potential PPC client-portfolios have meandered across my desk this month with these exact symptoms, usually with a precipitous decline over the last 6-8 months.

There’s a shortage of qualified PPC professionals out there in the streets, so it might take a little time to find a vendor who’s a great fit for your firm. The purpose of this post is to provide immediate tactics for in-house marketers running PPC, to stem the downward spiral immediately.

There are many excellent authors writing about PPC tactics and techniques. Next week, Search Engine Strategies NYC has quite a few sessions which are well worth the investment.  Much has changed in the paid search world over the last year, rendering many (or most) set-it-and-forget-it PPC campaigns neutered. Here’s a 15 minute checklist of Emergency action items which will likely impact your bottom line immediately to help right the ship.

1   Check the landing page SEO. I know, that sounds counter-intuitive. SEO is only about organic search right? This is not so anymore. Whereas “bid” used to equal any given ad’s position on the paid SERPS, now the ever-imposing “Quality Score” (Q-Score) + “bid” equals position. Q-Score at it’s most basic level is Google’s algorithmic assessment of the relevancy-relationship between your keywords, ad copy and landing page. The Q-Score impacts the cost of placing your ads higher on the paid SERPS.

Go back to your SEO roots on the landing page. Check the landing page copy, which is more commonly associated with organic optimization. These days the landing page portion, of what are several Q-scores, is less stringent (Google decides yes/no on relevancy). Make PPC landing pages directly correlate to the AdGroup’s keywords and ad copy.  An excellent approach is to optimize the landing pages for keywords in the referring AdGroup with the highest Click-through Ratio (CTR).

Certainly include the ad copy and the most important keywords from the AdGroup on the landing page. It’s even a great choice to put the Ad headline in the landing page’s HTML Title Tag. If it’s emergency-time and PPC is tanking, take the approach that multiple AdGroups require multiple landing pages. Even if the algorithm does need read a particular SEO attribute, results could be affected as pertain to human behavior if not Q-Score. Finally, be advised that Google has recently announced that PPC landing page load times will soon affect the Q-Score.

2   Tighten up the relationships between AdGroups and the keywords within. One way to immediately move the needle is by segmenting the AdGroups to where every keyword is in the ad copy itself.  For instance, say the AdGroup is “Coupons” and contain keyword permutations of “Printable Coupons,” “Downloadable Coupons,” and “Food Coupons.” Create separate AdGroups to house each set of permutations.  To clarify now we’re talking about the “Printable Coupons,” “Downloadable Coupons,” and “Food Coupons” AdGroups. It then becomes easy to craft ad copy which literally contains every keyword in the group.

Combine the technique of hyper-focused AdGroups with landing page optimization and there lies the makings of a significantly improved Q-Score. This will lower costs, help attain higher ad placement on the paid SERPs, and increase CTR. It may just stem the decline in itself. Also users are more likely to convert, since the landing page is tightly focused to the incoming keyword query.

Another added benefit to this thinking is potential organic prominence for your PPC landing pages, provided there is a link-path from the homepage drilling into the PPC landing page. Landing pages can be placed at any level on the site. It’s not uncommon for PPC landing pages to be “makers” organically on the heels of this approach.

Google’s never ending quest to improve the relevancy of paid SERPs has led us all to work harder to improve Q-Score. In light of declining PPC effectiveness, take these steps to set things straight. As with all-things-SEM, there are basic best practices to undertake as first steps in every case. In Pay per Click, focusing landing page SEO and AdGroup segmentation should be the first emergency actions undertaken in set up or as effectiveness of an existing campaign plummets.

How does your PPC traffic compare to natural search traffic and direct navigation?

New York Times reporter Alex Mindlin reveals The Best Kind of Traffic for Web Sites.

Mindlin highlights a study by Engine Ready, a San Diego-based search marketing software firm, that analyzed 18.7 million visits over two years to 500 or so Engine Ready client Web sites.

The New York Times article reports that type-in traffic was the highest converting and “most valuable” traffic. Paid search (PPC) listings outperformed organic search (naturally). Paid search ads prequalify traffic with brand and direct response ad copy.

Visitors who clicked on paid search (PPC) ads were 17 percent more likely to buy. Plus, paid search (PPC) average order value was about 18 percent higher.

Type-in traffic and bookmarked traffic performed best with a 3.3 percent conversion rate.

That’s not news to our readers or search marketing industry analysts. But if you want to learn how your PPC ads can perform better than others, Jason Miller, CTO, Engine Ready Software, will be featured on a Search Engine Strategies panel on Monday morning March 17.http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/newyork/agenda.html

Chris Boggs, Search Engine Watch Expert and Manager, Search Engine Optimization, eMergent, will moderate the panel and I’m sure he’ll have some great questions about the Engine Ready study as well.

Steve Lobo, Senior Manager Search Marketing at eBay gave an informative talk on paid search at the eBay Live conference in Boston.

The two Internet marketing channels are paid and organic search. Organic search has no payment influences and relies on optimization of various pages and site developments. Results will differ by search engine and algorithms.
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