The first genuine surprise was learning that some of the most disciplined campaigns turn off googles “optimise adverts by click” feature. If you take the “optimise by clicks” feature at face value, it should only run adverts which deliver strong click-through rates, which seems to be true – but is this really a good thing? Qualified adverts should only appeal to those likely to buy, if you are selling B2B products wholesale you don’t want end users clicking on your adverts, only business owners. You achieve this with very specific ad copy, ad copy that will have a lower click-through rate over all. Unfortunately Google bumps you over to the “optimise by clicks” every 30 days automatically, so its somewhat painful run an optimal campaign –  somewhat sad in itself.

Remarketing is surely the most neglected strategy in paid search. Tagging visitors to a website with cookies and then showing them specific display advertisements based on the content they viewed has almost limitless possibilities. One given was to tag purchases, then show display advertising thanking them for their purchase and offering a discount on their next. Another was pushing out improvements to your business – especially resolutions to any common grievances or complaints customers have had, checkout counter improvements as an example. Remarketing can be a form of reputation management if executed skilfully enough.

SEO and SEM are often treated rather distinctly by agencies – there’s a notable absence of strategic crossover between the two. A little exploration into the mechanics of the “quality score” in Google Adwords will show you adwords is reading title tags, headers (H1, H2, H3…), content, landing page speed and more – the bread and butter of SEO.  In execution a keyword in adwords should appear both the ad copy and in the tags on its designated landing page – difficult to do, but powerful if pulled off well. Even more interesting is the relationship between the two, you can’t get there with separate SEO and SEM strategies – you need a meta strategy. A search strategy.

The eMetrics seminar – where the air should have been thick with statistics and regression analysis, was a letdown. Either the presenters were unable to really tap into the science of data analysis, or unwilling to. Still, there were some insights – the use of flow charts to illustrate segment audiences (how one actually executes this was left for the audience to guess at) and the use of spearman’s rank correlation to bind two metrics together. Say, time on site to revenue: if the two are positively linked work to have your customers linger longer. If they were negatively correlated try to streamline your website, and so on. The execution here was non-existant as well, i’d start with SPSS or some other mathematics program – and a degree in statistics, if you’ve got one.

I have finally come to the end of my Volunteer Alliance outreach trip through Southern Africa. For those of you who missed my first blog, Volunteer Alliance is a non profit organisation that connects international volunteers directly with community based organisations in developing countries. The purpose of the platform is to make international volunteering more assessable and transparent.

In the past 6 months I have visited 7 countries and over 50 organisations from Cape Town, South Africa to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In each country we have worked with grassroots organisations to build an account and profile on www.VolunteerAlliance.org that they can use to attract international volunteers. With only 2 days left on our trip, we hit the 100 organisation and 1,000 volunteer milestone! This was an ‘unreasonable’ goal that we set at the start of the trip. It has been such an amazing experience and I wanted to share a few highlights and interesting things I have learnt along the way.

Every trip is made by the people that you meet. I have been fortunate enough to travel to these countries to live and work with the people who have started organisations trying to better their communities. Naturally, these are some pretty cool people. One person in particular stands out in my mind. That is Lucinda Evans in Cape Town. She lives in a community that is policed by the military because of the level of social problems. In this community she operates a women’s safe house for victims of domestic violence. Her ‘no excuses’ attitude has offended local gangs, embassy’s and everyone in between. It is a huge task, but you can see the difference she has made in the community. Her organisation is a refuge. And I don’t think anyone could be anything but inspired by her story.

Something that is really interesting about the places I have been is the internet connectivity. It is never high speed broadband, in fact it can take a few minutes to load Google, but I have yet to find a community that did not have at least some access to the internet. Quite amazing really. This includes a village of 100 people where my train broke down. I met some of the local children in the street. One boy named Walter showed me the village, his hut and then asked me to add him on Facebook!!!! It was the most bizarre thing. The level of computer literacy is low. But it is improving quickly because the people recognize that the internet gives even the most remote communities access to all types of information. That said, I think you would be hard pressed to find a digital marketing agency here….

I am very proud of what we have accomplished. It is only the beginning for Volunteer Alliance. But I would like to say a huge thanks to James and Atomic Search for helping us to get off the ground. If you have any questions, am always available to talk about my experience cameron@volunteeralliance.org.

Thanks for reading!

These new and underrated tools work for the little guy – large organisations entrench their rankings like rats in Tobruk, yet no traditional SEO will save them from a viral campaign that starts a retweeting frenzy, or a Google +1 from a friend, granting first position for them and all their contacts. Its a brave new world, but one that can be navigated with powerful results.

Of course, traditional SEO isn’t going anywhere, but it will have to be supplemented. Social media in search results is emerging as a wildcard personalisation of a previously predictable channel. Adjusting isn’t easy, but here are the 8 most important social strategies to begin driving social search traffic, today:

1. Entrance into Google+ is a must. This isn’t some experimental sideshow from Google, its their future as a company. Sharing will enhance your websites search results, Google circles will drive otherwise low ranking articles right to the top, and authorship personalizes articles, giving them a distinct authority in a search results page.
2. Articles you write should go everywhere. Automatic tools can help you do this, but the principle remains constant, any new content written should immediately go on Facebook, Google+, Linked In, Twitter, and more. Remember that timeliness matters, old content dies fast in the social space
3. Google +1: buttons wherever you can fit them. Google ads now include the feature, and so should everything on your website. Its the youtube thumbs up – for the whole internet.
4. Use authorship. By putting “rel=me” and “rel=author” tags in posts, Google will grant you a photograph and an author link right the search results, granting instant privilege over competing articles. Doing this isn’t difficult. just follow these instructions
5. Increase your followers: As sharing allows for enhanced search results Google wide, G+ followers are absolutely critical. Entice users in every and any way you can, from promotional activities to free giveaways. Reward your existing followers as well, exclusive content is an easy way to do it.
6. Use Pinterest, and StumbleUpon. Pinterest is the fastest growing social network in the race, and the referral traffic it offers is stunning. StumbleUpon is second only to Facebook in referrals, yet it never seems to be put on equal ground with its peers. Use them both, they are important.
7. Add their buttons as well. All websites have Facebook and Twitter buttons now, put the “Pin it” and “StumbleUpon” buttons nest to them as well.
8. Content should be shareable: What is shareable content? Info-graphics and other visual media are shared the most, and can generate killer traction in the social circuit. Keep titles punchy and alluring, Notice the influx of numbers in titles recently? That little trick was mastered by cracked years ago.

So I started writing few pages about where to go, when to go, etc. I really enjoyed doing it but admittedly I soon realised that there is no point writing about something you are passionate about if you do not have an audience and nobody reads what you write. So I rapidly moved to and embraced Dreamweaver and started creating my optimised Web pages in the attempt that search engines would pick them up and present them to the eyes of people when searching for content that was about Sardinia.

The result of this was that once my pages where indexed search engines started delivering a few dozen people to my pages every week. Nothing to blow your mind I agree but still satisfying enough to get me back writing more and optimise my content. Of course in the meantime I had covered all the social media basics and created profiles for Facebook, Twitter, etc and linked them all to my site but apart from one or two visits I have never seen social media taking off for me.

This until I created a profile in Pinterest and I started pinning most of the beautiful pictures of Sardinia from my site, including some personal shots of my own wedding. And that was it. It took someone to like and repin a picture of our wedding cake, comment and add it to their “big day” board, that my page about weddings in Sardinia started driving hundreds of visits every day!

Already in the first few months since launch 50 CBO’s profiles and 500 volunteer sign ups have been achieved.

If you were to volunteer through a volunteer placement organisation, you would have a pay a large fee to that organisation, similar to a recruiter, and very little of that fee would go to the actual community based organisation that you are working for. On Volunteer Alliance, because these connections are made without an intermediary, the cost to both the NGO and volunteer is significantly reduced, making volunteering more accessible.

We know from our research that online is the primary resource being used by international volunteers to find volunteer abroad opportunities. Through our digital marketing strategy we have been able to capture a large part of this search interest. This will only continue to increase as we develop our brand awareness.

However the community basedorganisations are more difficult. These organisations typically have a lower level of computer literacy and are not actively seeking opportunities to attract international volunteers. This is the purpose of my community based organisation outreach in Africa. To meet with these organisations, build them a profile and teach them how to manage their profile.

There is a very strong emphasis on computer literacy. This is because all higher paying jobs require a basic understanding of how to use a computer. As a result nearly every organisation that I have visited offers some form of computer training. Because of these courses, the younger generation in these communities are now on par with developed countries like Australia.

Internet adoption is also very high. I have found this even in communities where the access to computers is poor. As an example, Vrygrond is an informal settlement in Cape Town, South Africa where I was working with an organisation called Where Rainbows Meet. The youth at this organisation were more active on Facebook and Twitter than me! This was despite the fact that the only computers were at the local library (1 between 5) and at the organisation (where they were only allowed to be online for 2 hours per day).

The way that most people get around the poor access to computers is by using smartphones. Because the infrastructure has not been developed in these communities or is too expensive for most people, everyone has a smartphone and uses this to access the internet.

I believe that access to computers and the internet can empower these communities. The wealth of knowledge and information online gives these communities the capacity to improve their own situation. The steps being taken by these organisations to improve computer literacy and access to computers is an opportunity to bridge the gap between these communities and places like Australia!

I am only 2 months into my trip and we have already exceeded our expectations. I am very confident in what we are doing and I would like to say thanks to James Dixon and Atomic Search for supporting us. To James, I promise I will get you a photo on top of a mountain with the Atomic Search logo!

Ps. and yes, Google is still dominant throughout Africa!

The reality is that blogs are superior to these platforms in many ways and allow a stronger point of view with the opportunity to lead the conversation or at least get it going. Blogs put a human face and voice to your brand, differentiating you from your competition and educating prospects and clients. A lot of conversation is moving off blogging platforms but that doesn’t mean you should abandon ship asthey allow you to create a base in which all of your work is anchored. The reality is that blogs also often provide the fuel to get you social networking conversations burning red hot.

A blog allows you to build a fuller picture of who you are. Most people will meet you through other places…but if they like what they read on Twitter, then they’ll follow you back to your blog and find out more about who you actually are and what you are about. And as we have said before, reward them with lots of great relevant and informed content. This will command attention and help you influence trends, create breakthrough ideas and givepeople out there the kind of stuff they really want.

And seriously and most importantly understand that great blogging doesn’t focus vainly on you. Great blogging focuses on publishing long-form, brilliant articles that put your talent and knowledge and superior offer on display.Being an expert is not talking about yourself. Do that and your efforts will backfire. In fact, the more you talk about yourself the less people want to follow you.

So what should you talk about?

Before you start, you first need to totally understand what your audience wants and needs. Where are the gaps that you can provide information? Provide a unique contribution to the web and write in a way that shows how much you truly love your particular subject. Make an effort to build trust – People are skeptical. People are skeptical about strangers on the street and they are even more skeptical about strangers on the internet. A blog with consistent, truthful and helpful content will allow you to bridge that gap between distrust to trust.

So how do you build trust?

A thorough about page coupled with clean and beautiful design, correct spelling and grammar and a high-quality photo of the author is the start point. Additionally, signs of social sharing, links to trustworthy sources and high-quality images and visuals are important. A short, easy-to-read domain name, professional logo, solid, detailed content updated frequently and the presence of community and conversation through comments demonstrate others already trust you.

Back when blogging was the only game in town, it was easy to build trust in a short period of time. Now it could take you six months to a year to even get a few hundred faithful followers – It could take even longer. Be patient and persevere because the time you invest will eventually pay the dividends you desire.

Also exercise your creativity as in any competitive field it is the most creative who will succeed. Creative and appealing infographics can also help deliver complex information in an appealing way and content that stirs up conversation will generate new ideas and perspective.

Great blogging can reduce stress and help work out ideas and problems that might be weighing on your mind and the process of blogging unlocks hidden ideas, leading to insight. Ultimately, blogging will lead to growth as you learn about yourself, your audience and the world around you…leading to further creativity and profitable insights.

It’s also hard to think that anybody would doubt the benefits of blogging to improving organic search, which in turns drives more traffic to your site, but in case there are any unbelievers out there, people who’ve blogged five times in the last 7 days will get 6.9 times more search traffic – A hard fact to ignore really.Furthermore, as more posts increase, your overall site traffic will increase also. In other words, accumulating posts on your site over time is like a snowball growing in size as it rolls down the hill.
If you think about it, the more content you have the more likely you are going to have something that a reader wants. Why not try and give it to them?

Finally, the best reason you should continue to blog 2012 is that it’s a proven business model. How you define that business model is up to you.This model has been proven over and over and it is strange that some people would ignore it or run to the latest social media fad.

2012 is a great year for blogging and it’s still one of the best tools in your SEO toolbox. So, whether you have been blogging for years or this is your first, invest in building a blog that becomes something remarkable and profitable and try not to get distracted by those who say it’s dead.

Just increasing click-through rates however, may not yield the results you think. Remember that it is your conversion rate that is the true measure of campaign success. Get it wrong and you may even decrease your conversion rates with badly structured ads.

Add An Extension

One of the easiest ways to increase your click-through rate that also helps your conversion rate is to use ad extensions. Ad extensions will help you take up more real estate on the page and show additional information with your ads, and when people are searching it is the most specific and best possible information that they want. By adding extensions for things like local relevance, social, and specific product you will not only develop better real estate but greater relevance.

Add Sitelinks

Sitelinks are a type of extension except there is one big difference between all the other extensions and sitelinks.With the other extensions, only one extension will show with an ad. You can have sitelinks show with another extension. This is another no-brainer to add. With sitelinks, you can add additional benefits or navigation into your site directly from the ad copy.

Extend Headlines

Another very easy way to increase click-through rates in paid search campaigns is to end the first description line with a punctuation mark. When you do so, the description line is added to the headline and really makes your ads stand out.

Remember: The Display URL IS Marketing Copy

Your display URL does not have to be an actual URL. As long as your root domain in the ad and site are the same, you can consider the rest of the URL as marketing copy. The display URL can be 35 characters long – don’t waste the space.
Add a product name, feature, benefit, or other aspects to the display URL to make the ad copy more attractive and relevant to the search target market.

Use Seasonal Headlines

We are blessed with lots of tactical opportunities to get seen and there is always some kind of public holiday or significant event on the calendar. Drilling down to geographically specific or regional events, the list of events becomes endless. So be on your game and add or reference events in headlines at those points in time. It will make your ads look very timely and relevant and will often have positive impacts on click-through rates.

Use Trademarks

Many consumers are brand conscious. When someone searches for a brand, they want to see that brand in the ad copy. You do have to be careful of the legalities around trademarks so ensure you are careful in the preparation homework.Authenticity and specific relevance to your business should be authentic and honest, but if you are genuinely working with great brands, then make sure they are working for you.

Remove Prices & Add Discounts

The subconscious often sees spending money as a negative. Why spend money when you can save money? Removing the price can help CTRs and it is also useful when you’re not the cheapest ad amongst the competition.While we don’t like to always spend money, everyone loves a good deal!

Instead of putting your price in the ad, switch your offer to a discount. Instead of telling someone they need to spend $50, show them how they are going to save money so they think they are getting a bargain and are in greater control. What would you rather do, spend $50 or save $10?Discounts will often outperform prices in ads.

Give Something Away for Free

Everyone loves a genuine freebie. If you can, put something in your ad that’s free – just make sure it has real value or it will backfire. It could be afree consultation, a gift, buy one get one free, a whitepaper or valuable seminar. It doesn’t matter – just make sure it has that ‘real value’.

There are no guarantees however and getting it right will take time, trial and error.

While these 8 methods often work – they don’t always.If you need to raise your click-through rates, these ideas can and should help you gain a solid starting place. However, always test for yourself and in the end you will find what is right for you.

The result has made Nike one of the most prestigious brands in history, yet the mediums in which Nike flows are changing quickly. Nike has been no stranger to traditional marketing channels – promotions there have been better than anyones, yet Nike HQ is rapidly changing gears. Spending on TV and print media dropped 40% in 2010, yet overall advertising spent increases reliably year over year.

Where does all the money go? The size of their digital division has doubled, from a humble 100 employees in 2010 to 200 in 2011. The push into online advertising is based on the simplest of principles: follow the consumer. Nike’s core demographic is spending more time online than anywhere else. Advertising to an audience that isn’t watching isn’t a winning strategy by any Marketing 101 textbook.

This also follows a drop in endorsements, upon the realisation that pinning a brand to the gyrations of unstable and somewhat sinister characters like Michael Vick and Tiger Woods has serious downsides. This may seem strange in a time where celebrity worship is stronger than ever, not so much when you look a little closer at a character like Kim Kardashian, one of the most marketable celebrities in the world (and for all the wrong reasons).

All this is backed up by their product range, which is increasingly blended into the digital world. Digital sport went mainstream with Nike+ in 2010, which linked shoes and iPods for running and bio data for post-analysis and online competitions. It had 5 million users in 2011, but that was only the beginning.

Nike Fuel takes movement itself and converts it into a digital currency. Its surprising the biometric data such a simple arm band can produce, discussions are already abound of its influence for the Nike brand, social media and (impressively) medicine. However effective it will be moving forward, the advertising strategy is clear: online is where Nike needs to be in 2012.

Usually the offers are experience-based, anything from restaurant meals to massage treatments or skydiving experiences. The experiences offered are designed to be group activities, which encourages further sharing and a sense of community that can be easily transferred and promoted over social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

After reportedly being knocked back by Groupon after an attempted $6 billion buyout, Google has done what it does best, and launched its own service to compete in an already well established field. Currently available in some major US cities, Google Offers works in a similar fashion to the already existing daily deals websites, but will have the advantage of being supported by the extensive user data held by the search giant, making it an attractive provider for businesses interested in trying Daily Deals promotion.

You can download our 2011/12 Search Trends and Insights guide for free right here. We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments!