After a couple of great pieces of news last week – winning 2 awards for innovation at the Performance Marketing Awards and launching the service for our latest client Kiddicare (part of the Morrisons plc group), I have some fresh exciting news to share…

Today, I am pleased to announce that Net Media Planet is joining forces with digital marketing services group, Incubeta.

Incubeta is headquartered in South Africa with 200 staff across 7 digital businesses including Clicks2Customers.com, a global search and analytics agency. Their private equity backed ambition is to develop an international footprint with search and performance marketing as its central proposition.

The CEO of Incubeta, Alan Lipschitz, wanted to share some thoughts: “Net Media Planet is the leading independent search and display agency in the UK. As multi-award winners for innovation and performance, we are delighted that they will be joining the Incubeta digital marketing services group. We are excited to now have a presence in the important UK market. I am looking forward to working with their fantastic team and to helping them to build on what they have already achieved.”

I am really proud of the success we have had as an independent agency over the last 9 years – delivering performance for clients and creating a strong market reputation. This move represents the next phase in our growth strategy and we are really excited to be joining the Incubeta group. Their international ambition is particularly inspiring because it will create a step change in our scale and will enable both businesses to realise a shared long term vision.

Our focus remains unchanged – the delivery of outstanding performance and service to our clients. We will also continue to operate under our own Net Media Planet brand. In the longer term, we will expand our digital services offering and help our clients by leveraging the group’s presence across international markets, including South East Asia and Australia.

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or if we can help you create a step change in your online performance!

Sri

Last night the team joined more than 800 representatives from across the performance marketing industry to attend the prestigious Performance Marketing Awards.

We are delighted that our campaign ‘Improving performance no matter what the weather’ for Cotswold Outdoor was the overall winner in the Best Search category. Built on an idea by the Cotswold Outdoor Search Account Manager, this innovative campaign was recognised for its use of fantastic new technology to drive online performance.

Also shortlisted in the Search category was our multi-award winning campaign, ‘The price isn’t always right: defying convention to improve Papa John’s bottom line’. This phenomenal campaign lost out to Cotswold Outdoor in the Search category, but celebrated yet another win in the Best Mobile category. Through a combination of consumer insight and mobile technology, the campaign reached audiences at the right time and right place, delivering compelling results.

We are honoured to have both campaigns recognised by the industry. It’s testament to the team’s hard work and dedication, and I am proud to see us driving innovation and performance for our clients.

Our thanks must also go to our clients, Papa John’s and Cotswold Outdoor, who helped us deliver these truly compelling campaigns.

It was a fun night, congratulations to all winners, and well done to the team at PerformanceIN for a great event!

To learn more about these award-winning campaigns please contact Digby on 020 7186 2100 or Digby@netmediaplanet.com. He’d be delighted to show you what made these campaigns so great!

For a list of all award winners please visit: http://performancein.com/news/2013/05/07/performance-marketing-awards-2013—winners-revealed/

The latest best-practice breakfast seminar in the NMP Invites… series is on how to drive International growth through Search.

Taking place on the 23rd of May, this event will share insights and leanings from our MD and Founder Sri Sharma, together with representatives from Google and Microsoft Store. To take delegates through a comprehensive guide to growing a brand internationally.

If you are looking to expand your operations internationally, this is a must-attend breakfast seminar. Some of the key highlights will be;

• Learn how to effectively use Paid Search and Display to expand internationally
• Gain insights from Google on key international market trends – the latest stats and facts
• Hear how Microsoft Store expanded internationally – top tips and lessons learned from taking one brand into multiple markets

The breakfast seminar is taking place on the 23rd of May. Breakfast will be available from 8.30am onwards, and will finish at approximately 10.30am. The event is taking place at the Groucho Club, London.

This event is free to attend, though places are limited so please email Carolyn at carolyn@netmediaplanet.com to register.

In the first guide of this series we introduced the changes to Google Shopping. We explored in detail the changes to Product Data Feeds and Policy Guidelines in guides two and three. In this fourth guide we will specifically focus on best practice optimisation of your Google Shopping activity.

Since February this year, Google has been gradually rolling out changes to Google Shopping. New features allow users to make easier product comparisons across multiple retailers.

Best practice optimisation will drive more revenue

The new Google Shopping portal is already driving increased levels of traffic to e-commerce websites. Encouragingly, the conversion rate of visitors from Google Shopping is proving to be more than double that of other traffic sources.

However, in order to achieve strong results, time and effort will be required to optimise your activity. Gaining strong visibility on the Google Search results page and Google Shopping results page is absolutely key to driving sales.

Once you have the Product Data Feed fully operational and are updating regularly, you will need to start thinking about budgets, bidding strategies, messaging, images and on-going optimisation.

Here are our top 7 strategies to help you optimise your Google Shopping presence:

1. Start large – create an ‘all products’ campaign

Data feeds can typically be large, and may update regularly based on changes to or additions of products to an advertiser’s catalogue. This means that keeping track of specific targeting on individual products can be challenging.

One certain way to gain a presence across all products is to set up a target option for ‘all products’. This will enable Google to match search queries to relevant products within a PLA campaign. To set up an ‘all products’ campaign, create a new ad group for all products and set the product target option to “Add All Products” and then link the entire data feed as the target. Doing this will allow all products to have a chance of being shown, even if you are not optimising them individually.

One of the most important parts of an ‘all products’ ad group is to ensure the bid is less than the other product targets. Keeping the bid lower will ensure that you don’t compete with your other product targets.

Tip: Performance insight gained from your ‘all products’ campaign can be used to refine targets and bids across more profitable products and product categories.

2. Refine your targeting and bidding approach

PLAs use product targets rather than keywords to determine which items appear for product related search queries.

This means, that you don’t bid on keywords when running PLA campaigns, but rather bid at the ad group or product target level. It is also important to note that the Adgroups with the highest bid will outrank the others. Therefore finding the right product target, or combination of product targets is key.

There are various types of product targets to choose from, including Brand, Product ID, Product Type, Condition, Adwords Labels, Adwords grouping. These product targets work by grouping certain products together so that you will appear on the right search queries. For example, you may use the target Product Type, for all ‘rucksacks’ in your data feed. This would group all rucksack products together and ensure that they appear in the relevant searches.

We recommend combining multiple target options to create more granular targeting on products from specific brands. Continuing the previous example, ‘rucksacks’ by ‘Karrimor’. This will also help to optimise the campaign in line with your business’ goals, and inform which bids will maximise revenue across products and categories.

Tip: The promotional line (or, ad copy description) is a point of differentiation. To make sure the promotional line is specific to the product, use the product target as the basis of its content. For example, ‘Free Delivery on all Karrimor Rucksacks over 45litres’.

3. Employ a multi-layered bidding strategy

Putting in place an effective bidding strategy is essential to optimising performance. We recommend that you use existing performance data to put in place a bidding strategy for each product or product category. Base your bidding strategy on a performance hierarchy (eg. high ROI through to low ROI) and employ a different bidding strategy for each.

It is important that you continually monitor and refine your bidding strategy. Without this you may end up paying too much for your traffic, or losing highly qualified traffic to competitors.

Tip: Use a ‘one ad group per product’ bid strategy for small inventories and a ‘one ad group per category’ bid strategy for larger inventories. Establish your max bid by dividing the average cost-of-sale by the average number of clicks that generate 1 sale. This will help inform how much you should pay for each click while still maintaining profitability.

4. Don’t always show up – add the appropriate negatives

An important part of optimising a campaign is to reduce traffic and spend from irrelevant searches. You can do this by properly funneling the right queries to the right targets. Implementing sufficient negative keywords, and setting product filters to define which products can appear will limit the searches that your ads will show on.

Tip: Google allows advertisers to easily view which search queries are being matched to specific targets. Use this information to assist in identifying negative keywords. For example, if an advertiser only uses product level targets and sees that queries contain specific irrelevant manufacturers or terms then it may make sense to add them as negatives.

5. Use product titles effectively

The title plays a key part in determining when you show against a relevant search term. A title is more beneficial than using just the product name as it catches the long tail queries that are often used in Google Shopping. Many visitors to Google Shopping will often already know exactly what they want, and will just be looking for the best deal.

It is worth noting that Google allows up to 70 characters for the product titles, so ensure you make the most of them!

Tip: To make sure your product stands out from the rest and increases the likelihood of showing, we would recommend you use this naming convention, Manufacturer/Brand + Product Name + Generic term + Colour / Type / Specifics. For example, “Karrimor Cargo Holdall Travel Rucksack Black 45 litres”

6. Optimise your product images

As important as the promotional text, if not more so, is the image used to represent the product. Google is clear on this point; it will not display PLAs for product queries if the product doesn’t have an image attached to it in the feed. It is therefore imperative, as a minimum, that all products in your data feed have at least one image.

To further improve performance of the PLAs we recommend that you have two or more images to properly showcase the product and its key features. We also suggest that an image is included for all product variants so that, for example, images of rucksacks can be shown in all available colours. This will help your PLAs to show for general, as well as specific, search queries.

Tip: To further optimise the performance of images, set up a schedule to upload different images over a period of time to A/B test images across your products. This will help to refine and optimise the high performing images.

7. Track performance during and after transition to Google Shopping

Continued tracking across entire product lines, specific product categories, or at the product level is incredibly important. This will enable you to understand how well the campaign is running and help identify areas for improvement.

While transitioning campaigns to the new commercial model, we recommend that you separately track traffic for both sources so that you can monitor your progression across to the new commercial model. If Google Analytics is being used for traffic source tracking then add a suffix to the URLs. We would recommend that you include parameters specifically to track the campaign, product category and the unique product name and code. By placing these tags in your destination URLs you will be able to gather more data across the whole campaign.

Tip: To monitor sources of traffic, use URLs in both the ‘Link’ and the ‘AdWords Redirect’ columns on the Campaign page. Once the transition is complete, ensure that traffic from other sources is differentiated. To do this, set the basic URL parameters you use to track Paid Search advertising to mimic Merchant Center traffic.

Other key optimisation points to consider:

• Data really is king in Google Shopping, see our more detailed recommendations in our guide on optimising the Product Data Feed (http://www.netmediaplanet.com/blog/new-google-shopping-guide-optimising-product-data-feeds)
• Keep an eye on your prices – remember this is a price comparison site and so shoppers will be constantly monitoring and comparing prices across products

In summary, we recommend that you:

1) Start large – create an ‘all products’ campaign

2) Refine your targeting and bidding approach

3) Employ a multi-layered bidding strategy

4) Don’t always show up – add the appropriate negatives

5) Use product titles effectively

6) Optimise your product images

7) Track performance during and after transition to Google Shopping

Next Steps:

The above gives some insight into the level of constant optimisation that a campaign requires in order to be effective on Google Shopping. We believe that Google Shopping will offer a uniquely profitable experience for online retailers. In carrying out the above, you will be able to drive more traffic to your website, leverage the highest performing products to increase revenue, and ensure that your consumers get the optimum experience.

We recommend that you carry out a full Product Data Feed audit as soon as possible. This will enable you to optimise your campaign effectively, and will in turn help you to make the most of the retail opportunity.

To arrange a full Product Data Feed audit, contact Digby Mothes on 0207 186 2111 or Digby@netmediaplanet.com

Last week, Google announced that they will shortly be introducing Ad group mobile bid adjustments for Enhanced campaigns.

What does this mean for advertisers?

This is a fairly substantial modification to the current settings in Enhanced campaigns, which had previously only allowed mobile bids to be set at the campaign level. This arrangement had given cause for concern among advertisers who recognise that the ratio of performance from desktop/tablet to mobile (e.g. in terms of CR, CPA, ROI) often varies on a far more granular level, from keyword to keyword.

As a result, since the launch of Enhanced campaigns, advertisers have been looking for workarounds to enable optimal bids to be set for better mobile targeting. Such approaches include segmenting campaigns based on the ratio of mobile vs desktop/tablet performance, which in itself is not an ideal solution due to the vast number of campaigns that would have to be created and managed.

Subsequently, this latest move by Google will be seen as a positive one by advertisers, as it will enable optimal bids to be set for mobile in a far more effective and efficient manner.

How will this change benefit the advertiser?

This new feature will allow advertisers to have more granular control over mobile max bids, and therefore performance of their mobile campaigns. For example, in any campaign any keywords which don’t convert on mobile can be grouped into Ad groups with the bid multiplier set to -100% which would effectively remove the mobile device as a target destination. Likewise any mobile-specific campaigns can be grouped together and bids set to optimise traffic to this device.

Our top recommendations for using this new feature

• Analyse the current ratio of desktop/tablet vs mobile max bids on an Ad group level in order to determine what Ad group level bid multipliers you will need to apply. Hopefully the Ad group level bid multipliers will be easy to update in bulk through Ad Words Editor.
• Analyse which keywords don’t convert on mobile, group these into Ad groups in your desktop/tablet campaigns and set the bid multiplier to zero.
• Importantly, we would suggest that you hold off upgrading accounts with a high proportion of mobile traffic until this functionality is available from next month.

We hope you found this article useful, and if we can assist with your Enhanced campaign transition / set up then as always please do get in touch!

We are delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted at both the Rev Awards and the Performance Marketing Awards 2013. We are very proud to have been recognised by both industry bodies for the second year running.

At the Performance Marketing Awards a fantastic three campaigns were recognised across two categories, Best Search Campaign and Best Use of Mobile. At the Rev Awards our one submission was shortlisted in the Best Search Campaign category.

At both Awards, we showcased a brand new approach to driving search performance. This involved employing a newly developed bidding application which enabled us to more quickly anticipate and respond to consumer demands, and as a result improve online sales revenues.

To learn more about why this impressed the judges, and to understand how this technology could be used to improve your own paid search activity then please call Digby on 020 7186 2111 or email him at Digby@netmediaplanet.com.

We’ve had a fantastic year as an agency, and the Paid Search Marketing team continues to grow from strength to strength. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us to win these awards!

We are very excited to announce that Net Media Planet are launching a new service proposition in partnership with CharmClick of China. The new service exclusively offers UK and Ireland based companies the opportunity to advertise on China’s leading search engine, Baidu.

Johnny Zhu, CEO of Charmclick and Sri Sharma, Net Media Planet MD will be officially launching the collaboration during the keynote address at Internet Retailing Expo 2013. Entitled, ‘Baidu comes to Britain – new opportunities for online marketing in China’, Sri and Johnny will be showcasing the opportunity for British brands to take advantage of China’s increasing demand for Western brands.

As Baidu, often referred to as China’s Google, opens its doors to the West it brings with it major new online marketing opportunities for British brands. With an online population of 564M and 242M online shoppers, the scale of the Chinese market is incomprehensible to the West.

This keynote address will share insights on China’s unique online-shopping ecosystem, and ideas on how British brands can gain a foothold in the world’s next e-commerce superpower.

The event also marks the launch of the partnership between Net Media Planet and Chinese advertising agency CharmClick. We will be working together exclusively to help British and Irish brands take advantage of this lucrative market.

CharmClick is the exclusive European Baidu partner and Net Media Planet is the UK/Irish Baidu service provider. Both agencies are members of the Yamondo international network.

Come and learn more at Internet Retailing Expo 2013, where Sri and Johnny will be speaking in the keynote address at 3pm on the 20^th of March!

For more information about how you and your business can make the most of the UK Baidu opportunity please call [0870 3926951] or email Digby at digby@netmediaplanet.com, or contact us online.

While most of the UK’s brands are highly skilled in marketing and selling their products online to the UK market, not all are currently embracing the opportunities that lie outside of the UK. So many opportunities exist in other markets that international trade has to be high on the agenda for those trading online in 2013.

Overcoming the fear:

Brands are understandably wary of how they can limit the risks involved in entering new markets.

Paid Search marketing can help overcome some of the biggest challenges by enabling brands to assess the revenue potential from new markets quickly and comparatively cheaply.

Using Paid Search marketing we worked with a clothing retailer who was looking to expand their operations internationally. Running across multiple countries, the campaigns achieved interesting results and unforeseen opportunities from new, untapped markets.

Unlocking new international opportunities – what we did:

We initially targeted the larger European markets, such as France and Germany. Following the success across these countries, we explored the potential of expanding operations to other markets.

As the company had historic sales activity in the Middle East, we decided to explore this country next. We also included Kuwait as a target country. Although our analysis suggested that the amount of traffic in Kuwait would be low, we considered that the market was similar enough to be included in an exploratory campaign.

We ran campaigns across all markets, testing ad copy written in English and specifically aimed at each country such as “We deliver to Kuwait” and “Worldwide delivery available”.

Exceeding expectations – how the campaign worked:

The results demonstrated slow but valuable growth across all countries, with one exception. Confounding our earlier thinking, the campaign was immediately very successful in Kuwait, a previously untested country with perceived low opportunity.

Over a 5 month period, the campaign in Kuwait outperformed all other markets, including the UK;

• CTR on exact brand match terms in Kuwait was approximately double the rate of the UK campaign
• CR in Kuwait was on average over 6 times higher than in the UK
• AOV was nearly 300% higher in Kuwait than in the UK over the reporting period

Conclusion and tips to unlock new international opportunities:

The results of the campaign in Kuwait were highly unexpected, largely because as a previously untested country we were unaware of the potential. In addition, the campaign challenged the convention that countries with the highest brand awareness and the lowest shipping costs will always outperform other markets.

In closing, here are 5 tips for brands looking to expand their operations internationally;

• Research sales activity across all locations, and use this data to inform your expansion plan, as it makes sense to target a territory that has already achieved some sales success
• Take an incremental approach to expansion; learning from one market and applying that knowledge elsewhere. Perhaps start by expanding into culturally similar markets first
• Research the brand awareness of your product / service in the target country and neighbouring countries. If your brand is already known in one country, it is likely that it will also be known in neighbouring countries
• Experiment! As this campaign showed, it is worth testing out a country or region even if your research and analysis suggests that they will be low performing
• Call on experts to support your strategy. Use professionals who can help you with local market understanding and expertise in key marketing areas

We hope this helps, and good luck! Do get in touch if you have any questions.

I have just returned from SES London 2013, where I gave a presentation on how the rise of Mobile is shifting user behaviour.

Thanks to my fellow panellists Cindy Krum of MobileMoxie LLC and Mark Brill of Brand Emotivity. It was really interesting to hear further insights on how Mobile is changing consumer behaviours, and how brands can take that knowledge to improve online performance.

I thought I would share the deck I presented, which gives examples of our work with brands such as Papa John’s and Sk:n Clinics, and will hopefully offer some thought provoking ideas. Please feel free to have a look through and let me know if you have any questions.

Last Friday evening the team donned their finest and headed to Leicester Square for a fun filled evening at the casino.

The occasion celebrated a fantastic start to the year for us at Net Media Planet, and paid tribute to the work that the team have achieved over the past few months.

The team have delivered some great campaigns for our clients, which have gained multiple accolades from the industry as a result. These include the Best Use of Search at the DADIs, most Effective Mobile Search Campaign at the EMMAs and the Best Mobile Campaign at the Grand Prix award at the UK Search Awards.

This recognition has helped to achieve some great success on recent clients, with the likes of Superdrug, SurfStitch and Anthropologie joining the Net Media Planet fold.

The team has also continued to grow; we are pleased to welcome Carolyn to support our marketing efforts, Alex to support our external partnerships and Nirmala to support our Search campaigns.

Thanks to the team, and we look forward to the months ahead!

Sri