We all agree that every ‘like’ we receive on Facebook is appreciated and is often accompanied by a sense of accomplishment.  But what is the actual monetary value of a Facebook like?  It’s hard to say.

Unless your Facebook page is generating substantial leads or traffic to your website, you shouldn’t rejoice just yet. If all that ‘engagement’ you are producing on your Facebook isn’t contributing to your overall goals, than how can you justify the time and investment you have made as part of your marketing budget?

Monetizing your Facebook presence

Turning ‘likes’ into leads, fans into actual paying customers, or generating website visitors to help monetize your marketing can be achieved by following a few simple steps:

1. Build a custom landing page or ‘like’ gate

Custom landing pages, or “Like gates” as they are sometimes called, are a great way to turn likes into leads almost instantly as it encourages visitors to like your page before they are able to view your content. This directs your new fans into a specific marketing funnel, which you can create based on your individual goals and plans.

For instance, let’s say your company sells a product and you offer a discount to new customers.  You could use your custom Facebook landing page to offer this discount to new fans by offering a special code that only appears after you become a fan.  This coupon can be easily tracked in your business to determine how many came from Facebook.

You can activate a custom welcome page by adjusting your Facebook fan page settings as you have a few options under the current settings.  The most popular is to show the custom landing page only to Facebook users who have not yet “Liked” your page.  Once they like the page, they will be directed to the wall as the primary landing page after that, making the next 2 points all the more important.

The harder part is actually creating the page itself and crafting the message.  Many businesses think that they can just put up a pretty looking custom page to get more likes, but the larger challenge is thinking through what you want to do with new fans and what action you would like them to take.

2. Share links to specific content or offers on your wall

Now that they’ve liked your page, now what should you do?  Our recommendation is to give them what they want!

According to research compiled from ExactTarget, a whopping 58% of Facebook users reported they expected exclusive content from business pages. Take advantage of this information and make sure the content you supply is available exclusively to your Facebook fans only, and don’t forget to tell them so!

So don’t just post links to your website’s home page on Facebook.  Helpful ways to offer exclusive content can include:

• Setting up a landing page on your main website for this specific content
• Sharing links exclusively on your Facebook page that are not shared other places
• Require that page viewers must like you to view content

Other great ways to gain interest and connect with potential customers can be to offer:

• eBooks
• Seminars
• Webinars
• Other educational downloads

3. Make use of custom tabs

Customizing your Facebook tabs is another great way to monetize a Facebook page. You can create as many tabs as you like, and we recommend doing this for your most important products or services that drive revenue in your business.

Why not consider creating pages, or tabs for specific purposes such as:

• Highlighting all those great offers you have been compiling
• Downloading all those exclusive content promotions you’ve been generating
• Or a landing page to rotate promotions and offers

Don’t give up just yet

It’s important to find a balance between direct advertising which allows your potential customers to know what services you provide but doesn’t flood them with a long list of obnoxious information all at once!  On the flip side, many businesses make the mistake of thinking they can’t talk about what they sell on Facebook or other social media sites for fear of being seen as a spammer.

Using the tools outlined in this article will allow you to post your sales content in an appropriate place so that when your fans want it, they can get to it.  Follow these instructions and you’ll soon find those likes are turning into leads.

In today’s world, it’s not uncommon to hear someone say they “Googled” something.  Or more commonly, just “Google” it.

But just because “Google” has become synonymous with “search” on the internet, does that mean it’s the only game in town?  You might think so, but users and our analytics dashboard traffic reports show otherwise.  The most recent studies indicate that roughly 71.6% of search engine users use Google, but that leaves almost 30% using other sources.

While the use of their search engine has turned Google into a verb in today’s internet lexicon, some individuals prefer not to use the industry leader because of concerns over how their personal information is protected, among other reasons.  There are several alternatives out there from paid to open access. Some are better than others, so finding the best search engines besides Google, can be trial and error.

Yahoo to the rescue

For sheer name recognition, Yahoo holds strong as the number two search engine option. Once an industry leader, Yahoo is the #2 choice for the best search engines besides Google with roughly 14.3% of search engine traffic.

A few reasons people continue to love Yahoo include:

• When you open up the Yahoo search engine main page you find an easy to navigate site with loads of information available.
• The day’s top news is placed at the top center position of the main page and cycles through more than 40 stories that are currently trending.
• Trending topic keywords are displayed in the top right position.
• The left-hand side of the main page provides links to Yahoo services and information such as weather, email, games and job searches.
• Putting a keyword in the search engine quickly produces your classic list of related sites that relate to the topic.
• The right side of the page displays text advertisements with hyperlinks.
• The left side offers filtered search options based on the main search topic.

Many people stayed with Yahoo after they fell to number two because of the ease of use and accuracy of their searches.

bing a happy song

bing has been steadily on the rise as an option when looking for the best search engines besides Google since their debut in 2009. A Microsoft product, bing is marketed as a “decision engine”, and was known previously as Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search. bing’s increasing popularity and aggressive marketing is quickly closing the gap between them and Yahoo, as they have roughly 9.9% of search engine usage.

A few things that bing users love include:

• The main page contains a huge interactive graphic that changes regularly and is based on varied topics that tie in to current events related to the topic.
• Across the top of the main page you will find several tabs to various types of searchable information such as images, shopping, news, etc.
• One key tab that sets bing apart from other search engines is the Search History tab. This tab does just what it sounds like it does and is a more useful tool tan you might think.
• Across the bottom of the home page you have the option to enable what is called Stay in the loop with bing. Clicking on this link takes you to a page where you can sign up to receive trending information in your email.
• Bing Trends is another bottom of the page link that will take you to a page that uses graphics and keywords to show the topics trending the highest on bing. The page will displays six days worth of topics.
• The popular now links are simply the top four trending topics of the moment that you can link to directly without having to go to the Bing Trends page.
• A search on bing takes you to the standard list of results, but provides additional information about the topic in an interactive pop-out window.

The best of the rest

There are several other options when searching for the best search engines besides Google, but when it comes right down to it, it is a personal choice. Yes AOL, Ask and Dogpile are still out there, but their percentage of search traffic is growing smaller and smaller over time.  Probably one of the main reasons is that many of these search engines don’t actually give their own results, many are part of the Google network meaning they show you Google search results from their own search portal.

Our best advice is to step outside the Google box and try a few others before settling on the one you’ll call your own.  Our guess is you’ll come to one of 2 conclusions – either a renewed sense of awe for why Google is so highly regarded, or you’ll begin to appreciate the finer points of why some other search engines manage to hold on.

If you are looking for traffic to your website, there are few tools better than Google AdWords.  But before you get started you really should get a handle on making sure you know how you’re getting the best Google AdWords bid price possible.

You see, one of the beauties of Google AdWords is that it’s free to use, and doesn’t require an agency to manage it for you.  But that’s also one of the drawbacks. After all, if you were to negotiate your own TV ad rates or billboard rates without an intermediary, how do you think that would end up?

This is the basic problem most people encounter when they start on AdWords – figuring out what to set as a fair bid price?

AdWords Basics

The first that you need to know that AdWords is a pay-per-click service so when your ad appears, you are charged every time someone clicks on your ad, not when it appears.

This is a major difference between actually paying for clicks and paying for impressions (display advertising)!

The amount you are charged is your winning Google AdWords bid price. Therefore, you want to keep it as low as possible. But you still need to bid high enough to ensure that you actually get the click – which means your ad position needs to be high enough so the user sees it.

Determining the right bid price

Trial and error is one way to figure it out; many have done this, which is at least partially why Google’s stock price is so high.  But the secret to understanding what you need to do, to get the best Google AdWords bid price, is understand how the bidding process actually works and then putting that knowledge into action the next time you bid.

The bidding system that Google employs is called a Vickrey auction; named for American economist William Vickrey, the auction is a sealed-bid auction, in which bidders submit bids blindly. When the auction ends, the highest bidder wins as in any other auction, but unique to the Vickrey auction, the winner only pays the amount of the second-highest bid made. According to Vickrey the knowledge that you will pay less than you bid, provides the incentive to bid your high-end price or true value of the item.

Taking this method and moving it into the virtual economy, a Vickrey auction benefits the advertiser by increasing the value of their ad dollars (pay less for more) and benefits the seller (in this case Google AdWords) by ensuring that more advertisers will invest their dollars with their service and they will make more in volume rather than price per unit.

Therefore the strategy would be:

• Tommy wants the keyword ‘roofing’ to promote his construction business and so do Kyle and John.
• Kyle bids $1, John bids $1.25 and knowing the he’s bidding in a Vickery auction, Tommy bids $2.25.
• When he wins the auction, he will pay only the $1.25 bid John made plus one cent for a total of $1.26 or the AdWord. This saves Tommy $.99 per click.

There is of course always a risk when utilizing this method of bidding, in that you are not alone in the knowledge of how they process works and so there is a risk of having to pay more than you want to. Let’s look at our construction business owners again.

• This time, Tommy wants the keyword ‘siding’ to promote his construction business and again, so do Kyle and John.
• Kyle again bids $1, but John has learned the system and bids $2.15, knowing he did well the last time, Tommy again bids $2.25 and wins again.
• This time however, he will pay $2.16 John’s bid plus one cent for a total of $2.16 or the AdWord. This time Tommy only saves $.09 per click. Of course the other way to think about it is that it costs Tommy $.90 per click.

Other considerations:  Desired ad position

Sample PPC (Pay Per Click) Ad

Another major component of choosing the right bid price is having a better understanding of ad positions.  Ad position refers to the spot on the page where your ad appears.  So while vanity or ego might compel you to shoot for the highest price for a bid, most Google AdWords professionals would tell you this isn’t always the best practice.

Here are a few considerations:

• The #1 ad spot is the most expensive, meaning you will get the fewest clicks for your budget
• Placing bids that place your ad in spots 2-4 will gain significantly more clicks while still keeping your ad visible above the fold
• Bids that appear low on page 1 will have trouble getting clicks, and are considered lower value as users may not take them seriously due to the low ad position

Our recommendation: shoot for spots 2-4 on ad position.

In Summary

So, it’s plain that while the benefits can be great for your business if you get lots of clicks, it can be a two edged sword. If you end up paying a high price per click, it can eat into your ad budget quickly and significantly. But if you watch for trending keywords and find ways to tie your business to them and make smart bids, you can rest assured that you know that you’re getting the best Google AdWords bid price.

After reading this blog post, if you still have questions about Google AdWords or would like help, please contact us today via email info@mywsiconsultant.com for a free consultation.

The Google Analytics dashboard is one of the serious website owner’s most valuable tools.  Full of useful information and is hands down the best way to keep tabs on your internet marketing efforts.  This blog post will give you a first glance at the dashboard and consists of a step-by-step wizard that instructs you on how to begin analyzing traffic data on your website.

Getting Started – Sign Up

The first step that you will see, after logging into your Google Account, is the “sign up for Google Analytics” link. When you create your Google Analytics website dashboard within your Google account, you add the functions and services to your existing Google login. There is no charge for either a Google account or the Google Analytics service.

Step 2 – Install the Tracking Codes

The second step is to get and install the tracking code for your website(s). Google will ask you to enter your website data (URL, etc.), and will create a “tracking code” from that. This code should be placed within the <HEAD> </HEAD> section of your webpage. The code is invisible to visitors, but it places a “cookie” within the visitor’s browser that keeps track of your visitor’s activity while on your website.

If you are not sure about how to do this bit of programming, ask about our special offer to install Google Analytics for you.

Step 3 – Getting Familiar with the Dashboard

The third and final step in the Google Analytics process is to learn about your visitor’s browsing habits. After placing the code within your website’s header tag, the guest’s browsing activity while on your website will be recorded.  A few things you can learn include:

• The amount of time spent on the site
• Links visited within the site
• How many pages they looked at
• How they found your site

These are just a few of the important pieces of data you can learn from your dashboard, and will help you to gain a general understanding of a “trend” with user activity on your website. For example, if most of the visitors exit your website on a particular page within your site, you can analyze that particular page to see if there is a reason as to why the visitors leave your site after visiting that page.

Analyzing where customers leave before a purchase of a product on any retail site will show the store/website owner what they need to change on their website in order to keep the customers from leaving without purchasing their product.

Most Important Elements of Your Dashboard

While there are volumes of great materials written about the ins and outs of Google Analytics, I would like to point out what I believe are the most important, and practical aspects of the dashboard:

Traffic Sources

Your dashboard will tell you where your website traffic is coming from.  This is very important to understand how much of your traffic comes from each source, and how much (if at all) it changes over time.  The 3 major traffic sources are:

• Direct Traffic
• Traffic from Referring Sites
• Traffic from Search Engines (including keywords)

Visitor Info

Learning where your visitors come from, what they do on your site is vitally important.  A few things you can learn from this section are:

• The locality of web visitors
• How frequently they visit your site
• What type of browser (and mobile device) they used to find your site.

Goals

At the end of the day, having measurement in place to evaluate your website is critically important.  As such, you should configure goals for your website that you can track.  Potential goals include:

• Sign ups for newsletters or special offers
• Completed contact forms
• Purchase of online items
• Amount of time spent on the site

Regular Use of the Dashboard

After completing the initial steps, you will then login straight to your Google Analytics website dashboard from then on. Your website(s) will be displayed by URL, and you can click on that particular URL to see the traffic trends that have occurred on your site since your last visit to your Analytics account.

Analyzing the pages that your visitors enter your website and which pages that they leave your website are again, the most important sections of the dashboard. By looking at what page is the most popular entry page, you are able to tell that this page is more than likely the most SEO friendly, the most linked-to page from external sources, and also what the customer is looking for the most while visiting your website. For example, if most customers enter your website on the contact page, they are looking for a way to contact you more than anything else. If they were to enter on the products page, they are obviously looking for a product that your website sells, etc.

Glancing at the traffic trends for your website will tell you specific days of the week that your website has more visitors than others, the source of the visitor (how the visitor found your website), and how many visitors are repeat visitors/customers.

Overall, the Google Analytics website dashboard is more than likely the most simple, yet advanced, website analytics software to date. There are others such as AWStats, etc. – but Google Analytics is both platform-independent and free – which is always a plus.

Google Market Finder is a terrific free tool designed by Google which allows users to take a look at local monthly search volumes for specific locations. It also includes the costs of targeting particular keywords in every market, including foreign ones. This has been very beneficial in terms of growing our business on a world-wide basis.

Find New Markets

The free Google Market Finder tool uses world-wide Internet search data to reveal the number of times that keywords are searched for, in 56 different languages. We use the tool to see where consumers search for our products and services. Then we evaluate the new potential markets by comparing the local search volume, estimated keyword price and the competition for each keyword in all markets. This is really helpful in planning our marketing budget for the best results.

Here is an example of how it works:

Let’s say your company manufactures a cool line of sunglasses and you are interested in selling them outside of the US.  And let’s say (just for example) that you had several Spanish speaking employees and could support new business from Latin America.

You could use the Google Market Finder tool to search this type of query, and the results would look something like this:

Translate Key Words

Now that you have identified the countries that had the highest search volume for the phrase “sunglasses” you could use the free Global Market Finder tool to automatically translate our keywords into the language of our choosing (in this case Spanish), for all of our new potential customers. Using the tool, we can also see where people are searching for our products and services. Then we can narrow it down to specific locations to target in our online marketing plan. For this reason alone, it is an invaluable service, since we are not fluent in other languages. We would actually need to hire someone to do these translations, which would be quite costly. By knowing where our target audience is, we can best take advantage of the world-wide marketplace to expand our business and take it to the next level.

Use With Google AdWords

Google Market Finder is particularly effective when combined with Google AdWords. The free Google Market Finder tool showcases all of the estimates of a suggested keyword bid, as well as the competition for each Google translation for that specific target market keyword. In this way, since we are already using a Google Adwords campaign, we can use the Google Market Finder to choose a precise location and language with which to display our ads.

Access to All Marketing Media

The Google Market Finder can be used as a powerful marketing tool to help reach our potential customers on a worldwide level. Used with ad formats such as search engines, mobile devices, video and TV, this tool is extremely helpful in targeting exact marketing locations to find the best audience for our business products and services.

Important PPC basics everyone needs to know

Pay Per Click Advertising (or PPC) is one of the best ways businesses can drive immediate targeted traffic to their websites.  But this is easier said than done, which is why you should keep March 10 open because WSI is hosting an Internet marketing webinar you won’t want to miss.

Register now for this webinar entitled, “Understanding Pay-Per-Click Advertising – 5 Ways to Ensure a Successful Campaign” and gain valuable knowledge on how to implement a successful pay-per-click campaign that will drive targeted leads to your business.

We will discuss 5 key elements, including effective keyword selection, identifying negative keywords, focusing on a niche, writing successful ads and designing impactful landing pages. Register now.

Important Details:

Topic: Understanding Pay-Per-Click Advertising – 5 Ways To Ensure a Successful Ad Campaign
Date: Thursday, March 10, 2011 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/955454049

Why would you use PPC or Display Ads?

If you are seeking to improve online visibility, there are several good options for accomplishing this with paid advertising.  Generally speaking, with paid advertising you are either paying for direct clicks, or paying for your ad to show up in front of interested parties.

PPC (Pay Per Click or Paid Search Advertising)

This type of ad is “pay for performance” meaning that you only incur an expense when someone clicks on your ad.  These ads are setup to bid on certain key words and phrases within a geographic area that you designate.  PPC is most often used with new websites that may be lagging behind competitors in terms of search engine optimization.

Sample PPC (Pay Per Click) Ad

Pros of PPC

• Immediate impact – usually visible within 2-3 days of campaign launch
• Pay for performance – you pay only for clicks, not impressions
• Placement control – you have control over which keywords you bid on as well as what search engines.  You can also control which landing pages visitors will land on.
• Branding – even though a user may not click on your ad, it will still be displayed in search results which increases the number of times a user may be exposed to your brand.

PPC Drawback – Because it is paid advertising, once your budget is exhausted your website may not be visible to users in the top results for your targeted words and phrases. That doesn’t mean your website is not accessible, it only means your site may not get as much traffic because of lower position in the searches.

Display Advertising

Where PPC ads show up on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, display ads show up on individual websites.  A key difference from PPC is that you pay per impression rather than click, which makes it harder to link display ads to direct results (clicks, actions, etc).

Sample Display Ad

Display advertising works on 2 important principles:

1. Contextual interest – your ads will generally be placed on websites with pages that have topics that are related to your topic.  In other words, a display ad for fishing might appear on most pages of a fishing related website, but could also appear on n individual page within a travel related website that was specifically related to fishing.
2. Geographic location – advertisers have the option to only have their display ads appear in front of users whose IP addresses identify them with a certain geographic location.  For instance, a web visitor to Yahoo.com from Florida might see a different set of ads than a user from California.  This technology is not perfect, as some users hide their IP addresses, and others show incorrectly.  However, it does prove to be reasonably accurate and successful.

Pros of Display Advertising:

• Pay for impressions – you pay for a block of impressions (usually by thousands) for your ad to show up in front of a targeted web visitor.
• More room for creative messaging – display ads are larger and allow for creative messaging, special offers, moving graphics, etc.
• Targeted interest – Display ads show up in front of users on individual websites that may or may not be using search engines like Google to read up on their topic of interest.

Drawbacks to Display Ads – because you pay per impression and not per click, demonstrating ROI from display ads can sometimes be difficult.  Display ads should be used as branding tools with expectations similar to other forms of display based advertising – that is to create awareness of your brand where it might have otherwise not been seen.

The one digital marketing acronym everyone should know

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page. When you type a phrase into Google or any other search engine, the results for that search appear on a new page in your browser. This is the SERP, and for businesses concerned with online marketing, being on the first SERP is one of the top priorities.

Why it matters to businesses

Let’s face it, who looks past page 1 for anything on Google? If a customer has to go to the second page of results to find your website, they are far less likely to find you or to conduct their business on your site.

What a typical SERP looks like

On the SERP, you will see three types of results.

• On the left side of the page is where one can find natural or organic listings, those which are placed there because the search engine finds them to be the most relevant to your search terms.
• Above those are the sponsored links. Companies pay the search engine to be placed in these positions.
• On the right side of the page are the paid advertisements, the PPC ads.

Which is the best place for my business on SERP?

Everybody wants to be #1 on Google for their dream phrase, but sadly everyone can’t be first. Even so, there are strategies for placement on search results pages that may benefit you such as occupying multiple positions on the page. Today we look at sponsored results, regular organic results and local results as 3 opportunities to show up on the page. Stay tuned to future blog posts to learn more about this.

How to evaluate how “good” is your website?

When we talk to new clients, most of them fall into one of 2 categories. First are the people who know they have a lousy website and need a new one. We applaud these people for being reasonable and open to suggestions.

However, the 2^nd crowd thinks their websites are great. And we have to be careful with this because websites are sometimes like children, in that only a parent can call them ugly without fear of a fist fight.

The brutal truth

At the end of the day, the goal is to get people to your website and get them to become customers. And the truth is that if your website isn’t good enough, your online marketing efforts may be largely wasted. And in today’s economy, that’s a luxury most of us can’t afford.

Questions to consider if your website passes the “smell test”

• Does it engage visitors quickly? You have about seven seconds to convince someone who comes to your website that they want to stay, and this time includes load time.
• Does it load quickly? Not only does load time count towards engaging visitors, it also affects the way that search engines rank a website. Slower sites are ranked lower, so ensuring that yours loads quickly is a necessity.
• Does it have great content? When the visitor feels engaged with the site, they want to read more and take part in conversations on the website. They are more likely to turn into customers when they find your site interesting, and more likely to return regularly.
• Does it set you apart from competitors? This is more than great graphics or pleasing colors. Smart design involves placing the information in a way that will lead to conversions, such as clearly telling visitors how your are different than everyone else that offers the same service.

Don’t Ignore Your 2010 Business Card

Remember, your primary digital asset is not your Facebook page or your Twitter account or a really great email ad; it is your website. Take the time to make sure that your website is representing your business well and serving as an effective business tool.

Rankings are all of a sudden all over the place

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that Yahoo and Bing are merging.  Well sort of.

Yahoo is actually taking its search engine out behind the barn and putting it out of its misery.  They have decided to partner with Bing / Microsoft to provide all of their search results which started in the last few weeks.

What does this mean for you?

Keep an eye on your website leads and traffic in the coming months just in case you see any dips or rises due to these changes.

The results for Yahoo and Bing have been all over the board and changed drastically over the past month, a trend that we’ve observed in almost every campaign we monitor.  And if you normally get good traffic from Yahoo or Bing, there is a chance that could change immediately.

The process has already begun

Yahoo US has already taken the plunge, and you can actually see “Powered by Bing” under the search results.  You will also notice that search results for both Yahoo and MSN should largely be the same for all keywords for this same reason.

We are following this trend as it is still in the initial phases and is not totally completed.  It may lead to further changes.  And even though Yahoo and Bing make up a smaller amount of overall search volume compared to Google, it still has an impact your website rankings and internet marketing efforts.