Do you work with one or more agencies to execute your digital marketing strategy? By auditing your digital marketing agency, you can determine if they’re following best practices and actually making a difference in improving your sales, or just spending your money.
How should you evaluate your agency to find out if they’re performing up to par? During this webinar, Marketing Mojo’s Janet Driscoll Miller and Tad Miller will show you the criteria to use to evaluate your agency’s performance and ensure you’re getting the most bang for your marketing buck.
What You’ll Learn:
• Why it’s crucial to regularly review your agency’s activities and contributions to your goals
• How to determine if your agency is implementing the right digital marketing tactics for your company
• What metrics are important when it comes to the performance of your campaigns
• Tell-tale signs for how diligently your agency is working on your online advertising
digital marketing , introduction of digital marketing
How to Audit Your Digital Marketing Agency
1. HOW TO AUDIT
YOUR DIGITAL
MARKETING AGENCY
Presented by
Janet Driscoll Miller
President and CEO
Tad Miller
Vice President, Accounts
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
2. TODAY’S PRESENTERS
JANET DRISCOLL MILLER
President and CEO
Marketing Mojo
@janetdmiller
+ Janet Driscoll Miller
TAD MILLER
Vice President of Accounts
Marketing Mojo
@jstatad
+ Tad Miller
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
3. ABOUT MARKETING MOJO
•
Originally founded as Search Mojo
•
Demand generation marketing firm founded in 2005
›
Search engine optimization (SEO)
›
Paid media management
»
Pay-per-click advertising management (PPC)
»
Social media advertising
›
›
Marketing automation
›
•
Content marketing
Analytics consulting
Headquartered in Charlottesville, VA
›
Office in Charleston, SC
•
Featured in the Washington Post, B2B Magazine,
MarketingSherpa, Visibility Magazine and many blogs
•
Speakers at SMX Advanced, MarketingProfs, PubCon and more
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
8. WHAT IS THE CONUNDRUM?
• SEO changes EVERY DAY
• How can buyer’s stay on top of the right
questions to ask?
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
10. QUESTION 1:
HOW DO YOU MEASURE RESULTS?
• Rankings aren’t always indicative of success
› Rankings are highly personalized,
geographically focused
• Ask yourself:
What do YOU want SEO to do for your
company?
• Are goals set up in Google Analytics?
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
11. QUESTION 2:
HOW OFTEN DO YOU RECEIVE REPORTS?
• Should be monthly at minimum in
most cases
• Need some sort of interval measurement
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
12. QUESTION 3:
HOW MUCH SHOULD YOUR AGENCY
BE DOING?
• Consulting
› Most likely to give advice
› Client expected to execute
• Full service
› Advice + execution
› Level of execution varies
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
13. QUESTION 4:
WHAT IS THE LINK BUILDING STRATEGY?
• Tread lightly
here!
• Check
Google
Webmaster
Tools for
“unnatural
link”
notifications
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
14. QUESTION 5:
WHAT ABOUT RICH SNIPPETS
AND SCHEMA?
• Authorship
• Rich Snippets
• Schema/Structured Markup
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
15. QUESTION 6:
HAVE THEY DISCUSSED A
MOBILE STRATEGY?
YouTube Percent of Traffic from Mobile
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
2011
2012
2013
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
16. A FEW QUESTIONABLE SEO TACTICS…
• Content
› Duplicate content
• Linking
› Links in press releases
› Article marketing
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
17. WE INHERIT PPC MESSES
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
18. EVER BUY A FORECLOSED HOUSE?
• Many times taking over a PPC Account from another agency or in-house
department is the equivalent of inheriting a trashed foreclosed house…You
have to gut it and start over from scratch
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
19. SAME MISTAKES – DIFFERENT AGENCY
• We have taken over for massive well-known agencies and “my
brother in-law Steve”
• We see the same lack of diligence, misguided strategy and
ignorance displayed in almost all of them.
=
Steve!
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
20. EVER HEARD OF CONVERSION TRACKING?
• Believe it or not we still inherit Accounts that
never ever bothered to install some form of
conversion tracking…for years
› Some never installed it correctly
• Oh yeah, ever heard of Analytics?
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
21. WHAT DO YOU MEAN “THERE’S NO REPORT” ?
• We have seen large and supposedly reputable
agencies offer NOTHING in the way of
reporting
• Yes, Really…
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
22. BROAD MATCH EXCLUSIVITY
• The biggest turnaround success stories we
have for taking over PPC accounts are the
ones where they previously only used
broad match keywords
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
23. BROAD MATCH IS THE DEFAULT
• Google tells advertisers to ‘just let them do the heavy lifting’
with broad match technology
• Problem is that it’s incredibly broad to the point of frequently
being irrelevant
• It’s lazy. If you are paying an agency for just broad matching
you deserve better
• Max out Exact Matches
› Higher CTR
› Lower CPC
› More Clicks for less money
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
24. CHECK FOR NEGATIVE KEYWORDS
• This is easily the most neglected
tactic in PPC and it’s one of the
most important
You should see
negatives and
additions here
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
25. TOO MANY ADS WATER DOWN CTR
• Best practice is to test 2 ad search
ad copies per AdGroup (3
Maximum).
• We frequently take over Accounts
that use anywhere from 7 to 10
active search ads in the same
AdGroup
CTR
CPC
• This lowers CTR. Raises CPC and
as a result lowers the number of
clicks you can afford
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
26. MIXING SEARCH & DISPLAY IN THE
SAME CAMPAIGN
• Search and Display don’t perform the same and
shouldn’t be in the same campaign together
› Share the same budget but not performance
› Allows for more granularity and better performance
› Allows for better bidding by keyword on Display
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
27. BIGGER ISN’T BETTER FOR CAMPAIGNS
• It’s common for us to take over Accounts that just have 2 or 3
Giant Campaigns that should really be 5 or 6 smaller
Campaigns
• Too many AdGroups with wide variation in performance
• Need to separate the great from the not-so-great so budget for
the great can be maximized
• Need to separate Brand from Non-Brand
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
29. TAKE A LOOK UNDER THE HOOD
• You just have to know where to look
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
30. YOU KNOW YOU’RE IN TROUBLE WHEN…
• If you go to the change history and find it
blank. This Account is on “Set it & Forget it”
mode
Activity Should Be Here…
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
31. THAT’S ONE BUSY ROBOT
• If the only change history in your account happens in
tight clusters at the same time everyday at an
incredibly fast ratio, chances are its an automated bid
management system running things
• This isn’t bad in and of itself, but their needs to be a
human being also looking after things occasionally
• Algorithmic formulas can work really well (the
opposite is true as well), but they still need human
judgment and occasional intervention
• Ask what role human account management plays
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
32. BIDS ARE UP! NEVER DOWN
• Check out the keyword bidding. Are bids only being increased?
• Not all keywords are created equal. Is bidding performance
based?
• Agencies paid by percentage of media spend can be more
interested in getting the budget spent than on improving
account performance
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
33. DAILY SPEND MAKES A FURIOUS END OF
THE MONTH COMEBACK
• Spend and performance always looks weak for the first 3 weeks
• Activity logs indicate much more aggressive attempts to spend
it before the end of the month…but conversion performance in
that last week doesn’t improve
• The pattern keeps repeating itself with no conversion
improvements
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
34. HOW ABOUT SOME NEW KEYWORDS?
• When is the last time they added
any keywords?
• They should regularly be adding new
relevant keywords or new negative
keywords
Look for these
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
35. EVER HEARD OF BUDGET ALLOCATION?
•
•
•
•
Do all the campaigns have exactly the same budget?
Or are they budgeted by performance
Are the best performing campaigns under funded?
When is the last time budget allocations were
changed?
85% of Conversions Come From This
Campaign and it Needs More $
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
36. BID MANAGEMENT FROM ON HIGH
• Not all keywords are
created equal
• Are your accounts only using
AdGroup level bids?
• Are there any keyword
level bids?
• AdGroup bidding is “Cruise Control”
Bidding. It won’t max out
performance
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
37. WHAT ARE YOU SPENDING
MY MONEY ON?
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
38. SPENDING MORE TO LOSE
• Go to the keywords tab and do this filter:
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
39. WHAT ARE THEY DOING WITH
THOSE LOSERS…
• Are Average Positions high for nonconverting keywords?
› Do they ever decline?
• Do clicks on non-converting keywords keep
increasing?
› Have they ever decreased?
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
40. SPENDING MORE TO KEEP LOSING
• Are your costs per click on non-converting
keywords going up?
• Do they ever go down?
• Why pay more to keep failing?
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
41. IT WORKS IN REVERSE TOO
• Analyze performance on what converts
with this filter
• Is the average position on converting
keywords too low?
• Is CTR on converting keywords improving
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
42. WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE’RE OUT
OF BUDGET?
•
•
•
•
Is all the budget being spent before 3:00 AM?
What hours of the day convert best?
Check out the Dimensions Tab
Should your budget be saved for when it
converts?
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
43. WHY AM I ADVERTISING ON
CELEBITCHY.COM ?
• If you advertise on the Display Network
you need to watch it and exclude
placements that don’t convert or have
questionable content
• Check out what placements you are
spending budget on here:
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
44. ARE YOU STAYING OUT OF BAD
NEIGHBORHOODS?
• Check to see if category and placement
exclusions are being used
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
45. E-COMMERCE SHOULD MAKE $
• First question: Are you making more money
than you are spending?
• Is your agency measuring ROI?
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
46. PRODUCTS FIRST. CATEGORIES SECOND.
• Emphasis first on product specific ads and
Product Listing Ads (PLAs)
• Secondary emphasis on non-branded
category keywords
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
47. HERE’S WHERE YOU CAN PUT YOUR
“AWARENESS”
• Do your agencies reports emphasize
concrete results like conversions, sales,
leads, etc.
• Or is the emphasis on Impressions,
“Awareness”, “Engagement” or “Building a
Brand” ?
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
48. VANILLA IS OK…BUT
• There are so many great new features to
use now.
› What are they doing with mobile, tablets,
geographies, age, gender, history visiting your
site, etc.
• You shouldn’t have to ask why not
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
49. UPCOMING WEBINAR
The Secrets of Landing
Page Success:
Optimization Best
Practices and Case Studies
Jenny DeGraff
Design Optimization Manager
Marketing Mojo
March 13, 2014
2:00 p.m. ET
REGISTER TODAY AT
www.marketing-mojo.com/LPSuccess
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com
50. CONTACT
JANET DRISCOLL MILLER
President and CEO
Marketing Mojo
@janetdmiller
+ Janet Driscoll Miller
TAD MILLER
Vice President of Accounts
Marketing Mojo
@jstatad
+ Tad Miller
@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com