Minneapolis Marketing Firm, Russell Herder, Achieves Certified Partner Status with Google AdWords

Posted by: Neil James // April 24th, 2012

Minneapolis Marketing Firm, Russell Herder, Achieves Adwords Certified Status

MINNEAPOLIS - Russell Herder, a Minneapolis marketing firm, is proud to announce that it has earned recognition as a Google Adwords Certified Partner.  Achieving agency-level certification, Russell Herder joins the ranks of only a handful of companies within the Minneapolis market.

To achieve the status of Google AdWords Certified Partner, Russell Herder digital experts successfully passed a rigorous set of search engine marketing exams which covered such topics as keyword research, the AdWords interface, and making the most of other various online marketing and analytical tools that Google provides.

“We are proud to add the accolade of Google Partner Certified to the agency’s credentials and accomplishments,” said Carol Russell, CEO Russell Herder. “Our clients have enjoyed measurable ROI through the delivery of Google AdWords management service for some time and now this certification will allow us to further enhance the successful strategies we’ve developed to achieve the best possible results for our clients.”

Russell Herder’s digital division provides a variety of digital marketing solutions, including pay per click advertising, social media marketing, web analytics, email marketing, search engine optimization and much more. The professional digital marketing experts at Russell Herder provide custom-tailored solutions that focus on helping clients make improvements to grow the profitability of their online marketing efforts.

About Russell Herder

Founded in 1984, Russell Herder provides integrated strategic solutions to regional and national clients. With offices in Minneapolis and Brainerd, Russell Herder develops strategies that link creative, research, advertising, public relations and digital communications into powerful, results-driven platforms. For more information, visit russellherder.com.

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2011 Paid Search Results Improved Over 2010

Posted by: Matthew Bick // February 15th, 2012

A recent study by Marin Software has shown that paid search is gaining more acceptance from search users.  The study, as reported by eMarketer, indicated. “According to the company, the average US clickthrough rate on Google increased 48% in Q4 2011.”  The growth was also seen in other popular search engines, as “Yahoo!/Bing saw a 44% increase during the same timeframe.”

The eMarketer article went on to give a greater insight into where these paid results are most successful.  Data indicated that 90% of clicks in the United States came from a computer, with 6% coming from a smartphone and only 4% from tablet devices.  93% of impressions came from computers, with 4% from smartphones and the remaining 3% from tablets.  Although the percentages may seem relatively small, as Marin Software reports, “smartphones and tablets are beginning to eat away at computers’ total share of paid search activity,” compared to data from 2010.

@MatthewBick

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The One Thing Marketers Need to Know About the New Facebook – The New Facebook For Marketers – Part 3

Posted by: Neil James // October 25th, 2011

The One Thing Marketers Need to Know About the New Facebook - The New Facebook For Marketers - Part 4

If you are versed in the principles of search marketing, SEO and PPC, you are at an advantage as a marketer on Facebook.

It’s an important point, arguably the one thing you need to know about the new Facebook as a marketer,  so let’s repeat it.

If you are versed in the principles of search marketing, SEO and PPC, you are at an advantage as a marketer on Facebook.

How?

More than ever, Facebook’s changes have been influenced by the strategic principles that propelled Google to undisputed search dominance.

For those of you old enough to remember, Google holds the rare distinction of being both their industry’s dominant player and last-to-market. Before Google, the search landscape was ruled by indefatigable titans such as Altavista, Lycos, Infoseek, and Yahoo!

Even in those glory days (the 90s) marketers recognized the advantages of having a high ranking for relevant search queries. Savvy webmasters gleefully stuffed their websites with keywords, gaming the system. Yahoo! sold off top rankings to the highest bidder.

Enter Google. While known among techies but less so by marketers, Google’s ascent into dominance was built on their commitment to relevance and the user experience.

What does a user want when they enter a search query? Relevant results.

What type of effect did the gaming and paid placement have on search engines? They produced less relevant results for their users.

Google was the first of the major search engines to recognize this fact and built a system predicated on relevance. If Google’s search engine does not return relevant results, it has failed in its mission. So successful though was Google at delivering relevant results that their very name came to represent the category of online search.

With superior relevance and user experience, Google attracted more eyeballs than any other search property. Advertisers looking to take advantage of these eyeballs were greeted by one of the industry’s most innovative and effective marketing models: pay-per-click marketing.

The rest was history.

What does this have to do with Facebook?

SEO and PPC

The new Facebook will provide visibility to brands similarly to how SEO and PPC produces visibility for brands in search engines.

Consider a search query for the phrase “Caribbean cruises.” Google will return what it believes to be the most relevant results in its organic listings, highlighted below in red.

SEO - The One Thing Marketers Need to Know About the New Facebook - The New Facebook For Marketers - Part 4

SEO: Organic Listings - Google

Attempts to improve visibility in these non-paid, organic listings is known as search engine optimization or SEO. The art of SEO is a complex one, and involves, more or less, work to convince Google that your website is worthy of higher organic rankings. SEO is accomplished by attracting links from credible sites, thorough tagging of site elements and properly sculpted architecture enhancing site visibility.

While the benefits of SEO are immense, the process is slow and arduous. Enter, pay-per-click marketing or PPC.

PPC - The One Thing Marketers Need to Know About the New Facebook - The New Facebook For Marketers - Part 4

PPC: Paid Listings

In the above image, the areas of a search engine results paid highlighted in red are purchased through Google. The art of PPC is complex as well. Ever committed to the user experience, Google does not simply allow any advertiser to buy visibility for a given keyword. Advertisers must (generally) be relevant to the keyword they choose to advertise under. PPC allows advertisers to obtain visibility as a media expenditure rather than as a function of natural relevance to a specific keyword.

Facebook Visibility

Prior to September 2011, the bulk of Facebook updates were delivered to users in chronological order. If my friend made a post at 3:00 pm, a brand I was following made a post at 2:00 pm, and another friend I was following created an event at 1:00 pm, I would see those updates in that order from top to bottom: the 3:00 pm post is most visible at the top followed by 2:00 pm branded update and and the 1:00 pm event creation.

As discussed in part one, with the introduction of Top Stories, Recent Stories and the Ticker, this is no longer the case.

Now, Top Stories, the most visible part of the Facebook user experience, is controlled by a Facebook algorithm. Based on the posts you’ve liked, commented on and interacted with in the past, Facebook figures out automatically which posts are most likely to be relevant to you and gives them prominent visibility.

Sound familiar?

Top Story - The One Thing Marketers Need to Know About the New Facebook – The New Facebook For Marketers

Top Story: Facebook Organic Visibility

In essence, brands that fail to produce relevant content, which in the context of Facebook, is content that is liked, commented upon, shared and interacted with, will be punished with reduced visibility.

Such, the analogue to SEO. The art of SEO is creating a website that, by improving relevance, promotes organic visibility in the results pages of search engine. Creating visibility for your brand’s posts on Facebook, formerly a product of chronology, will now be a function of relevance, which for Facebook, is measured by user engagement.

Sponsored Stories

Not everybody can be a winner at the organic game. What if you just want to buy visibility?

Enter Facebook Sponsored Stories.

Sponsored Stories - The One Thing Marketers Need to Know About the New Facebook - The New Facebook For Marketers - Part 4

Sponsored Stories: Facebook Paid Visibility

Let’s say somebody likes your brand’s Facebook page. This action is likely not something that will be shared or commented on, and as such, be less likely to be visible in the new Facebook construct.

By paying for Sponsored Stories, Facebook allows you to increase the visibility of this new “like”. When purchased by the advertiser, the friends of the person who liked your brand will see this “like” as a prominent sponsored story in the right hand column of the page.

“Likes” are not the only action that can have their visibility powered up by Sponsored Stories. Perhaps more importantly, if your brand issues a post about an upcoming sale, purchasing Sponsored Stories will ensure that more of your fans see this post. Specific likes or comments on posts, app uses and check-ins also can be promoted via Sponsored Stories.

Just as with Google PPC marketing and Facebook’s current ad platform, Sponsored Stories can be tightly targeted. If you’re promoting an extreme energy drink, you can create parameters that ensure your sponsored story only shows to males ages 18-34 in your targeted geographies.

Sponsored Stories are purchased on a cost-per-click or cost-per-impression basis. It should be noted that if you choose cost-per-click, which most advertisers will, Facebook is not in the business of giving you free advertising. If your sponsored story doesn’t generate a click, Facebook will stop promoting your message.

So just as Google did, Facebook is leveraging the sheer amount of eyeballs it owns to charge brands for prominent visibility.

Should You Buy Sponsored Stories?

Like any good answer to a generically asked marketing question, it depends.

With any luck, you’ve been very diligent about paying attention to the metrics of your Facebook page generated through Facebook Insights. If you haven’t, that’s okay.

If your brand posts according to an editorial calendar or on a schedule, keep a careful eye on the news feeds impressions through Facebook Insights, particularly if you have a KPI whose effectiveness depends on this metric. If you notice a decline in the number of people viewing your posts, you need to consider:

  1. Rework your posts to drive more engagement – more shares, comments and likes.
  2. Consider purchasing sponsored stories to drive up impressions, and track the subsequent results

The New Facebook for Marketers by Russell Herder

Introduction: The New Facebook for Marketers

Part 1: Facebook Ticker and How the New News Feed Works

Part 2: Getting the Most Out of Facebook Insights

Part 3: The One Thing That Marketers Need to Know About the New Facebook

Part 4: What is Facebook Timeline?

@NeilAndrewJames

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Content Marketing: All Hail the King

Posted by: Liz Mortek // April 21st, 2011

Content Marketing All Hail the King

Whether you’re researching a car, catching up on the news, or getting a daily dose of your Twitter feed, we all go online seeking one thing: information.

A new article from Ruth Shipley for the Social Media Examiner, How to Create Content the Engages Prospects and Customers, explains the sure path to your customers’ hearts and into your prospect’s minds is too create content that provides exactly that.  People are searching for information, and at the time that they need it. And they’re searching the internet.

So how can marketers use this to their advantage? According to Shipley, the key to igniting sales is to create online content and optimize it so that is appears on the first page of search results when your customers search for you or the products or services you sell.  So, what is the moral of this story? Focus on your content, because as it turns out, content is king after all.

@EMortek

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Search Marketing and Social Media: Are They Interchangeable?

Posted by: Mark Palony // March 31st, 2011

Search Marketing and Social Media Are They Interchangeable

Have you ever used a hammer to tighten a loose screw or a screwdriver to pound a nail? If so, I’m willing to bet the results were less than successful. And so it will be if you’re using social media to do the job of search marketing. Like the hammer and screwdriver, search and social media are both very useful tools, as long as you use them for the right job.

Cara Whitehouse of Reload Digital, makes the mistake of equating the two in this post on The Wall, a UK blog.  According to Whitehouse, social media will not drive people to your website as well as a solid search marketing strategy. But the point is based on the premise that social media and search marketing are interchangeable.

If your one and only objective is web traffic, by all means pour your budget into search marketing. But if you also want to build an online community and have meaningful engagement with the citizen, social media offers the tools and tactics that will help you achieve that goal.

Different jobs call for different tools. Don’t use a digital screwdriver to pound a digital nail.

@MarkPalony

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Should SEO Chase Facebook Instead of Algorithms?

Posted by: Neil James // March 24th, 2011

Should SEO Chase Facebook Instead of Algorithms

The art of search engine optimization (SEO) at its core is defined by the Sisyphean courtship of search engine algorithms. Like a suitor desperately seeking to win the attention of their object of desired affection, SEO practitioners endlessly labor to ensure their websites are properly decorated to capture the attention of Google and Bing. But should SEO practitioners consider pursuing a new digital lover?

According to a new Marketing Vox article, `Likes’ and Their Equivalents Growing in Importance to Search, it’s possible, as search engines are shifting their organic rankings to emphasize social “likes” (such as Facebook likes) rather than algorithmic compatibility. Both Bing and Google report tweaking their search algorithm to emphasize social likes. According to Bing, “this is the first time in human history that people are leaving social traces that machines can read and learn from, and present enhanced online experiences based on those traces. As people spend more time online and integrate their offline and online worlds, they will want their friends’ social activity and their social data to help them in making better decisions.

@NeilAndrewJames

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Web Content – Dont Make Google Hulk Out On You

Posted by: Ben Schmidt // March 18th, 2011

Web Content - Dont Make Google Hulk Out On You

Google has announced that it will be cracking down on content farms. In doing so, pages that feature better (and original) content will now be ranked higher in Google search results. Most of us don’t write for content farms (right?), but since this news casts a fresh spotlight on the value of quality web content, it’s a good excuse to think about the quality of content the rest of us are bringing to the table. Because we wouldn’t want to make Google angry. We wouldn’t like Google when it’s angry.

SEO Springboard’s 10 Steps To Writing Better Web Content is a great place to begin. Right from the get-go, we have a very good reminder – let’s not forget we’re writing content to be read…by another human being.

Yes, SEO is important, but keep in mind it’s only one of two masters we have to serve if we’re aiming for truly outstanding work. The other is your audience. Be they C-level executives or stay-at-home dads, decision makers or risk takers, techies or technophobes, you need to know who you’re trying to talk to.

With your audience identified you can distill it down to a simple profile. Now you’ve got something to write to, increasing the chances that “Bob” or “Beatrice” won’t just see your content; they’ll be affected by it. And that’s the goal right?

It should be.

Unless you’re a content farmer.

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How Much Should You Spend on Search Marketing?

Posted by: Neil James // December 21st, 2010

If your brand isn’t visible to search engines, you might as well not be on the Internet. A recent iCrossing survey found that 95 percent of all non-branded natural search traffic originated from page one results across all three major search engines. Ensuring that customers can find you when searching for your products and services on Google is more critical than ever. How much should you pay a consultant or firm to help you with your search marketing? Ultimately, the scope of your business and its goals will be your primary guide to how much you should spend. That said, a recent survey done by SEOMoz compiled of over 10,000 respondents found that 22 percent of companies spent over $1,000 per month on SEO consulting services. Similarly, 24 percent spend over $1,000 per month on pay-per-click (PPC) marketing.

@NeilAndrewJames

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